Intermediate Lesson 27 - Book of 2 Kings

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF 2 KINGS

Church: Philadelphia                                Lesson 32 of 39                                 Theme: Word of God

Background Information:

ü  The church of Sardis taught us how we are to love the family of God.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of 2 Kings:

I can be saved because God so loved the world that the word became flesh.

Essential Question:

Can I be saved if I am prejudiced against the word of God?

2 Kings:

Have students read pages 163-168 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Does the world teach us that God so loved the world that the word of God became flesh? How does the world get us to build our foundation of faith on sinking sand instead of The Rock of Faith?

The world is trying to separate God from His creation with a worldview that teaches how perverse judgment proceeds from God because the world will teach us to be prejudiced against the word of God with a heart that knows the truth but believes the lies of the world. The world does not want us to remember that God’s standard includes death as the cost of sin because Jesus has given us a way to beat death. The sacrifice Jesus made is how we can be sanctified when we are a witness to the righteousness of God. The world will not acknowledge that Jesus beat death, and He is our only way to salvation. The world gives us death for sin. We need to know the truth to combat the enemy’s lies.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

When the world teaches us to decide what is right or wrong, we will be self-righteous, and this will cause us to believe lies and be prejudiced against the word of God. The world will try to get us to blame God for sickness and death and believe that God does not love us. We can look to the sacrifice that Jesus made to understand how God loved the world so much that He sent His Son. As it is written in John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, as glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Jesus’ teachings about the word of God can be misunderstood because Satan, the father of lies, wants us to be prejudiced against the word of God so we will not connect the word of God to Jesus healing the sick and beating death.

The Old Testament has a message for people today. In the book of 2 Kings, we learn how the word of God can heal people from sickness and save them from death. When people began talking about this message, the people worshipping false gods began to think about how to make a living sacrifice to a living God because they were no longer just hearing a message about the punishments of God. Naaman, a captain, of the Syrian army, searched for salvation when a slave girl who was captured in Israel and brought to Syria against her will said, “I wish my master, Naaman, could meet the prophet who lives in Samaria. He would cure him of leprosy.” Naaman listened to the little slave girl.

Remember the Rock God Established:

Naaman went and told the king of Syria what the slave girl from Israel had spoken. The king of Syria wrote a letter to the king of Samaria (Israel) asking him to cure Naaman of leprosy. The king of Syria put aside any prejudices toward Samaria (Israel) to save Naaman. When the king of Samaria read the letter from the king of Syria, he ripped his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive?” The king was not a good king. He did not believe that Naaman could be healed. The king of Samaria thought that the king of Syria was looking to start a war or fight. When the prophet Elisha heard about the king's distress, he sent word to the king of Samaria to send Naaman to come to him, and he would know that there is a prophet in Israel.

Naaman came and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent his servant to tell Naaman to go dip in the Jordan River seven times to be cleaned (cured of leprosy). Naaman said, “Really, I thought he would have come out of the house and called the name of his God to heal me, but he sent a servant to tell me to go dip in the Jordan River seven times.” Naman said, “There are rivers in Damascus, the capital of Syria, that are much better than all the waters of Israel. Why can’t I just wash in them and be clean?” Naaman had a servant with him, and his servant could have just kept silent. However, his servant began talking to Naaman. To share a belief, people have to be comfortable that a person will be open to their ideas. The servant asked how hard is it to dip in the water after coming all this way. Naaman listened to his servant, and the notorious Syrian captain was cured of leprosy after dipping in the water. Naaman went back to Elisha, and he was so excited about how there is only one God in all the Earth, and it is the God of Israel. Naaman said he would never offer another sacrifice or burnt offering to any other god except for the Lord of Israel. However, Naaman asked God to forgive him because when the king enters his temple in Syria, he would have to bow down to the god of Syria with his king. Naaman had not been taught the word of God or how to sacrifice. However, Naaman was aligning his thinking with how to make a sacrifice to be saved. Naaman said he would like to take some dirt back to Syria with him from Samaria. Naaman thought that the power of the sacrifice was in the dirt to save him. He said he would only make a sacrifice on the soil that came from Samaria. Naaman had not been taught in Syria that death is the cost of sin. Elisha told Naaman, “Go in peace.”

God has not revealed a lot about the spiritual world to us. We know that Satan told Eve that she would not die if she ate from the tree of good and evil. Satan told Eve she would be like God and know good from evil. Satan wants us to be able to be self-righteous and to determine what is good or evil. Satan is trying to separate God from His creation by teaching God’s servants of righteousness to ignore the fact that sickness and death are the cost of sin.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 1 – Step 3.

Students will take on the role of a creator in this activity to understand how difficult it would be to have the creation understand the plan of the creator.

Conclusion:

Elisha taught the Gentile nation that sickness could be healed by the living God.

Next Lesson:

In the next lesson, we learn how Job was awakened by God to understand the importance of the sacrifice because Satan was witnessing to God against Job. God said that Job was a righteous man. We are awakened by Jesus to understand the importance of presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice because Satan wants to compromise our sacrifice and take us to hell. Satan thought he could get Job to be prejudiced against God and to believe that perverse judgment proceeds from God. Satan believes that man will be prejudiced against God with prosperity, sickness, and/ or death. We need to awaken to know that we can repair the relationship by presenting a living sacrifice with righteous behaviors.