2 KINGS 6:1-7:20
ACTS 15:36-16:15
PSALM 142:1-7
PROVERBS 17:24-25
2 KINGS 6:1-7:20
One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, " As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. 2 Let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet." " All right," he told them, " go ahead." 3 " Please come with us," someone suggested. " I will," he said. 4 When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. 5 But as one of them was chopping, his ax head fell into the river. " Ah, my lord!" he cried. " It was a borrowed ax!" 6 " Where did it fall?" the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water. Then the ax head rose to the surface and floated. 7 " Grab it," Elisha said to him. And the man reached out and grabbed it. 8 When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, " We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place." 9 But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, " Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there." 10 So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God, warning the people there to be on their guard. This happened several times. 11 The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called in his officers and demanded, " Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?" 12 " It's not us, my lord," one of the officers replied. " Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!" 13 The king commanded, " Go and find out where Elisha is, and we will send troops to seize him." And the report came back: " Elisha is at Dothan." 14 So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. 15 When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. " Ah, my lord, what will we do now?" he cried out to Elisha. 16 " Don't be afraid!" Elisha told him. " For there are more on our side than on theirs!" 17 Then Elisha prayed, " O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!" The LORD opened his servant's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. 18 As the Aramean army advanced toward them, Elisha prayed, " O LORD, please make them blind." And the LORD did as Elisha asked. 19 Then Elisha went out and told them, " You have come the wrong way! This isn't the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria. 20 As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, " O LORD, now open their eyes and let them see." And the LORD did, and they discovered that they were in Samaria. 21 When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, " My father, should I kill them?" 22 " Of course not!" Elisha told him. " Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master." 23 So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their king. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel. 24 Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mobilized his entire army and besieged Samaria. 25 As a result there was a great famine in the city. After a while even a donkey's head sold for two pounds of silver, and a cup of dove's dung cost about two ounces of silver. 26 One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, " Please help me, my lord the king!" 27 " If the LORD doesn't help you, what can I do?" he retorted. " I have neither food nor wine to give you." 28 But then the king asked, " What is the matter?" She replied, " This woman proposed that we eat my son one day and her son the next. 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said, ` Kill your son so we can eat him,' but she had hidden him." 30 When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing sackcloth underneath next to his skin. 31 " May God kill me if I don't execute Elisha son of Shaphat this very day," the king vowed. 32 Elisha was sitting in his house at a meeting with the leaders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, " A murderer has sent a man to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out. His master will soon follow him." 33 While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived. And the king said, " It is the LORD who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for the LORD?"7:1 ELISHA replied, " Hear this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost only half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only half an ounce of silver." 2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, " That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" But Elisha replied, " You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!" 3 Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. " Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. 4 " We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway." 5 So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! 6 For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. " The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out. 7 So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives. 8 When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. 9 Finally, they said to each other, " This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace." 10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened--that they had gone out to the Aramean camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a single person around. 11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace. 12 The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, " I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city." 13 One of his officers replied, " We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it won't be a greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us." 14 So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15 They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 16 Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of fine flour were sold that day for half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for half an ounce of silver, just as the LORD had promised. 17 The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out.So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. 18 The man of God had said to the king, " By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost half an ounce of silver." 19 The king's officer had replied, " That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" And the man of God had said, " You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!" 20 And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
ACTS 15:36-16:15
After some time Paul said to Barnabas, " Let's return to each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are getting along." 37 Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. 38 But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not shared in their work. 39 Their disagreement over this was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. 40 Paul chose Silas, and the believers sent them off, entrusting them to the Lord's grace. 41 So they traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia to strengthen the churches there. 16:1 PAUL and Silas went first to Derbe and then on to Lystra. There they met Timothy, a young disciple whose mother was a Jewish believer, but whose father was a Greek. 2 Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, 3 so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. 4 Then they went from town to town, explaining the decision regarding the commandments that were to be obeyed, as decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew daily in numbers. 6 Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had told them not to go into the province of Asia at that time. 7 Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not let them go. 8 So instead, they went on through Mysia to the city of Troas. 9 That night Paul had a vision. He saw a man from Macedonia in northern Greece, pleading with him, " Come over here and help us." 10 So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, for we could only conclude that God was calling us to preach the Good News there. 11 We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at Neapolis. 12 From there we reached Philippi, a major city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony; we stayed there several days. 13 On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we supposed that some people met for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had come together. 14 One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. 15 She was baptized along with other members of her household, and she asked us to be her guests. " If you agree that I am faithful to the Lord," she said, " come and stay at my home." And she urged us until we did.
PSALM 142:1-7
A psalm of David, regarding his experience in the cave. A prayer.
1 I cry out to the LORD;
I plead for the LORD's mercy.
2 I pour out my complaints before him
and tell him all my troubles.
3 For I am overwhelmed,
and you alone know the way I should turn.
Wherever I go,
my enemies have set traps for me.
4 I look for someone to come and help me,
but no one gives me a passing thought!
No one will help me;
no one cares a bit what happens to me.
5 Then I pray to you, O LORD.
I say, " You are my place of refuge.
You are all I really want in life.
6 Hear my cry,
for I am very low.
Rescue me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me.
7 Bring me out of prison
so I can thank you.
The godly will crowd around me,
for you treat me kindly."
PROVERBS 17:24-25
Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth. A foolish child brings grief to a father and bitterness to a mother.
