This is our second week in 2 Kings. In 1 Kings, we saw a repeating theme of hope amidst failure. In 2 Kings, we’re seeing a theme of persistence.
How will they persist? Will the people in the narrative persist in walking away from God as their predecessors had? Or will the people in the narrative persist in walking towards God? Will they choose relationship with Him and intentionally turn from the things that pull them away from God?
Last week as we opened the book, Ahaziah was king. He was the son of Ahab, who 1 Kings had called “the worst.” Ahaziah was on his balcony and fell and was gravely injured.
In this narrative, there is no correlation between his injuries and his being a bad king who was making poor decisions. Sometimes catastrophic accidents happen. What the story focuses on is the fact that he didn’t turn to God for help or wisdom or direction, but instead turned to Baal-Zebub to see if he would recover.
There is no question that this wasn’t an ideal circumstance for Ahaziah. His personal history included parents with real issues. He’d had a terrible accident. He was probably in a great deal of pain. But even in this terrible moment, there are some things we can assume about Ahaziah.
One of those things is that, even though his parents were Ahab and Jezebel, he still would have had cultural connection to God and would have heard again and again the stories about the Israelites escaping from their slavery in Egypt. That narrative included the story about the Israelites’ experience at Marah, right after they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and God swept the Egyptians away in the water—right after that—the people grumbled because there was no water to drink. And at a place called Marah, the water was bitter. God told Moses to take a specific piece of wood and put it in the water, and miraculously the water became good to drink. And then God spoke:
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.” (Exodus 15:25b-26)
Ahaziah knew this story. He had heard this over and over: I am the Lord, who heals you. And yet, in this moment when he needed to be healed, he persisted in going away from God and toward Baal-Zebub.
And now we bring the question to us: How will we persist? In less than ideal circumstances, in spite of poor examples, when we are in pain, when we are desperate, when life has not been fair—how will we persist?
I want to be predictable. To turn to God in all moments. To seek God in all situations. To follow God and walk in relationship with Him.
As we turn the page today to chapter 2 with Elijah and Elisha, there is a call to be persistent in being discipled. Discipled can be defined as intentionally moving toward Jesus and becoming more like Him through teaching, example, practice, and relationship.
It can be easy to think, maybe I need people to persist in making me better. I’d love to be part of something that will persist in training and refining me. But as Elisha shows us, we have responsibility to persist in being discipled. I have responsibility to persist in being discipled.
Before we go to the text of 2 Kings, I want us to talk about immediate gratification. Our responsibility to persist may at times be at odds with instant gratification! I’m going to list 15 things, and I want you to give each one a score from 0 to 7, where 0 means this thing doesn’t really give me any immediate gratification and 7 means it gives me immediate gratification to the max!
Scrolling social media
Eating sugary food or junk food
Finishing a workout
Buying something impulsively online
Watching a funny video or short clip
Winning a competitive video game
Getting likes or affirmation on a post
Taking a nap when exhausted
Completing a small task on a checklist
Listening to favorite music
Gossiping
Drinking cold water when very thirsty
Laughing with friends
Procrastinating difficult work by doing easier tasks
Binge watching shows
Now that you’ve scored them, let’s take a little time to process:
What stands out to you as you gave these things a score?
One more question, as a background to processing our persistence in being discipled:
What are some factors that increase or decrease the appeal of immediate gratification for you?
As we process persistence, let’s look at a parable Jesus tells about persistence in Luke 11.
At the start of the chapter, Jesus was doing something that He did consistently—He was praying. We see a few of these times in Luke:
Jesus prays at His baptism • Luke 3:21–22
Jesus withdraws to lonely places to pray • Luke 5:16
Jesus prays before choosing the twelve apostles • Luke 6:12–13
Jesus prays privately before asking, “Who do you say I am?” • Luke 9:18
Jesus prays on the mountain at the Transfiguration • Luke 9:28–29
Jesus rejoices and prays in the Holy Spirit • Luke 10:21
And it happened again in Luke 11. Then, when He had finished praying, one of the disciples came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray. Jesus gave them what we call the Lord’s Prayer:
“Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:2-4)
I wonder if they expected something longer and more complicated. But He gave them a short but deep, specific, and foundational prayer. And then He told them a parable.
Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” (Luke 11:5b-8)
Persistence matters! It has impact. It changes things.
Then Jesus follows this parable up with these powerful words:
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)
I have two questions for you. Here’s the first one:
How does it affect you when someone is persistent with you?
Okay, one more, a little deeper:
What fuels persistence in you, and what changes in you as you practice remarkable persistence?
Here’s our text in 2 Kings 2.
When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?”
“Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “so be quiet.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?”
“Yes, I know,” he replied, “so be quiet.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on. Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.”
“No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.” But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” (2 Kings 2:1-18)
There are so many things happening in this story. Elijah tells Elisha not to come—why? Maybe to test his persistence? The prophets know that Elijah is leaving, but we’re not told how they know. They cross the Jordan on dry ground, echoing the experience of the Israelites in Joshua 3:17. And then Elijah was caught up to heaven without dying.
There are so many things happening here in this story! But in the midst of it all, Elisha does not get distracted or diverted or pulled away from closely following Elijah. He persists!
And Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. This isn’t an “I want more!” request. It’s a phrase from family inheritances, where the firstborn was given twice what the other sons were given. Elisha is asking to be recognized as Elijah’s true successor. It means, “Let me carry your prophetic authority and responsibility fully.” It also expresses a desire for extra strength and for God’s Spirit to fulfill that calling.
I am going to give you time to unpack a few things in this. First, remember how we defined “discipled” earlier: intentionally moving toward Jesus and becoming more like Him through teaching, example, practice, and relationship. Here’s a two-part question to discuss.
What are some of the obstacles to discipleship (bringing intentionality to a relationship in order to move towards Jesus)?
What is the value of discipleship (bringing intentionality to a relationship in order to move toward Jesus)?
After this narrative of Elijah’s ascension and Elisha’s persistence, there’s a text that mirrors the one we mentioned earlier when God healed the water at Marah in Exodus 15.
The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”
“Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken. (2 Kings 2:19-22)
A miracle. God worked through Moses long ago, and Elijah, the one who had invested in him, and now him—now Elisha.
We have come a long way today. We talked about immediate gratification and how that ties to discipleship and persistence. We heard the parable of the persistent neighbor that Jesus told. We talked about the impact of persistence on others and on me. We saw the persistence of Elisha. And now we see Elisha taking that mantle, as evidenced by the healing of the water.
It’s time for one final conversation. As we think about discipleship and about being discipled or getting “it” passed on to you:
Describe a healthy balance between short-term and long-term gratification when staying persistent in discipleship (investing in others and having others invest in us).
Take It Deeper Questions:
Read Luke 11:1-13.
What is something in life that you have persisted in, despite of strong resistance?
What is something you can’t seem to persist in, whether there is resistance or not?
What does persistence in prayer look like when it is practiced?
What promises does Jesus lay out in this text that are valuable to you today?
How are you challenged, focused, encouraged, and/or confused by this text?
Bible Reading Plan:
2 Kings 3 • God’s relentless provision
Psalm 63 • Hungry for God in prayer
1 Kings 18 • Elijah’s persistent prayer for rain
Daniel 9 • Confession and intercessory prayer
Matthew 6 • Jesus teaching on prayer
Luke 18 • Persistent widow and prayer faith
Acts 1 • Waiting and praying for the Spirit
James 5 • Powerful, effective prayer of the righteous