I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for over a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     The king of Aram was raiding Israel, but every time he sent a raiding force the Israelites were ready and waiting for them. As a result he asked his top officers to figure out who the traitor was who kept revealing his plans to the king of Israel. His officers told him that none of them were a traitor. Rather, God was revealing his plans to Elisha who then told the king of Israel, The king of Aram sent scouts to find where Elisha was. He received word that Elisha was in Dothan. So, he sent a large force to capture Elisha.
     When Elisha got up in the morning there were troops everywhere. His servant cried out in fear. Elisha told him not to worry because there were more on their side than against them. Elisha than prayed that God might open his servant’s eyes. The servant’s eyes were opened and he saw that the hills around Elisha were full of horses and chariots of fire. Elisha then called on God to blind the forces of the king of Aram. Elisha then went out and told the enemy forces that they had gone the wrong way and were at the wrong city. He told them that he would lead them to the man they were looking for. He then led the force from Aram in to the middle of Samaria, where they were surrounded by the army of Israel. At that point God opened their eyes and they realized they were surrounded. The king of Israel wanted to kill them, but Elisha convinced him to throw a feast for them and send them home.
     After this the king of Aram stopped raiding Israel. However, some time later, the king of Aram launched a full-scale invasion of Israel and placed Samaria under siege. The starvation in the city got so bad that some of the people resorted to cannibalism. When the king of Israel learned that people were resorting to cannibalism, he went to Elisha, intending to execute him. Elisha told him that by that time the following day, food would be ridiculously cheap. One of the king’s officers told Elisha that what he was predicting was not possible even if God supplied food directly from heaven. Elisha responded that the officer would see it, but would not get a chance to eat any of it.
     That night, just as the sun was setting, four men with leprosy who were sitting at the city gate. They decided that they had nothing to lose by going to the Arameans because if they stayed where they were, or went back into the city, they were going to starve to death. When they got to the edge of the Aramean camp, they discovered that it was empty. The Arameans had heard what they thought was the sound of a large army approaching. They concluded that the king of Israel had hired the Hittites and the Egyptians to relieve the siege. As a result the Aramean army had fled without even packing up their camp. When the lepers discovered that the camp was empty they went in and began eating and drinking. After a bit, they had an attack of conscience and realized that they needed to give this news to the city. They realized that if they were greedy and waited until morning, they were likely to suffer some calamity.
     When the king heard the news, he was sure it was a trap, so he sent scouts out to see if they could locate the Aramean army. The scouts found a trail that the Arameans had left as they discarded clothing and equipment as they fled. They followed the trail all the way to the Jordan River. When they reported this back to the king, the people of Samaria rushed out of the city to plunder the camp. As a result, the prices were what Elisha had prophesied. The king had appointed the officer skeptical of Elisha’s prophecy to manage the people going through the gate, but they had trampled him to death.
     These stories have a common theme: no matter how powerful the forces arrayed against, and how bad the situation appears, God is capable of rescuing us and bringing us into a time of plenty. We need to always remember what Elisha told his servant, “Don’t be afraid! For there are more on our side than on theirs!” This idea is phrased in another way in the book of 1 John: “You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” We need to remember this whenever the troubles we face in this world threaten to overwhelm us. In the first of these two stories, Elisha was surrounded by a large armed force and all he had in physical terms was himself and his servant. Yet God gave him the ability to lead that large armed force to a place where it was surrounded by an overwhelmingly superior armed force and it surrendered peacefully. In the second story, an army was besieging Samaria and Samaria had no force strong enough to break the siege. Yet God caused the besieging army to believe they were about to be overrun by the armies of both of the two superpowers of the day. If we have faith, God will do the same for us. There is also a cautionary tale in the second story. The Israelite officer who told Elisha that his prophecy was impossible saw the prophecy fulfilled but did not get to experience the good times. Let us never fall into the trap of thinking that something is beyond the ability of God to deliver.

     Some time after returning from the Jerusalem Council, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they revisit the cities they had preached in on their first trip. Barnabas agreed and wanted to take John Mark with them again. Paul vehemently disagreed to taking John Mark along. Their disagreement was so strong that they ended up parting ways over it. Each went out on their own. This separation worked out to spread the Gospel even further, but it reflects poorly on Paul. Paul was upset that John Mark had left them part way through their first mission trip and was unwilling to give him a second chance (although we know that they were later reconciled). It is worth noting only as a reminder that even Paul occasionally failed to live up to the standard to which we are called.
     Barnabas took John Mark and sailed to Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas and went to Derbe and then Lystra. In Lystra, Paul asked Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman believer and a Greek man, to join them. Despite Paul’s opposition to requiring Gentiles be circumcised, Paul arranged for Timothy to be circumcised. Paul, Silas and Timothy (and whoever else was with them at the time) traveled through Phrygia and Galatia intending to go on into the Roman province of Asia. However, God arranged circumstances to prevent them from doing so. When they came to the province of Mysia, they headed north towards Bithynia. However, once more they were unable to continue as they planned and were forced to travel through Mysia to the seaport of Traos. The first night in Traos, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia asking him to come to Macedonia.
     At this point, Luke starts using the first person plural to refer to Paul’s travels. The group boarded ship and went over to Macedonia, where they traveled overland to Philippi. In Philippi, there was apparently no synagogue and they went outside the city to a place by the riverbank where they expected to find some worshipers of God gathered for prayer. They found some women gathered there, as they had expected, and they began to preach the Gospel. At least one of the women was receptive to the message they preached and accepted Christ. Her name was Lydia and she was baptized along with her household. Luke notes that she was a wealthy merchant and that she invited them to stay at her house while they were in Philippi. Luke’s wording suggests that she was insistent on them staying at her house.
     We have in this passage two lessons. The first is how God used the strife between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark to multiply his mission workers. Not only does God divide Paul and Barnabas so that there are now two mission trips where before there was only going to be one, but He has Paul take Timothy under his wing so that there are two young men (John Mark and Timothy) being groomed for future leadership positions in the Church. The second is that God used obstacles to doing what Paul and those with him viewed as their mission to guide them into a new mission field. There is a little more to it than that. When Paul and Silas ran into an obstacle to their plans, they did not stand still and keep trying to find ways around those obstacles. They kept moving along the ways that were open to them. God then made clear to them His plans for them. The key to following God’s plans for our lives is to keep moving. I like to use this analogy: it is much easier to steer a car that is moving than one that is standing still.

     This psalm ties together the first two passages from today. When we are overwhelmed by our troubles, let us cry out to God. He is the one who knows which way we should turn. He will guide us when we do not know the direction we should take and He will rescue us when those who oppose us are stronger than we can face. Remember that when we face trouble, God will nevertheless be good to us.

     It is foolish to allow ourselves to be distracted from wisdom and from God. If we keep our eyes focused on God, He will reveal to us the wise course. Once He has shown us the wise course, we should follow it and not allow ourselves to be distracted by other possible paths. As today’s passage from Acts makes clear, if God wants us to follow another path, He will block our way on the path we are on.