When You Know What You Know: Foreknowing the King’s Acts (2 Kings 6:32-33) and Revealing War Secrets (Kings 6:8-13)
Tonight’s podcast is the seventh lesson learned from the Miracles of Elisha: A Series. The title of this podcast is When You Know What You Know: Foreknowing the King’s Acts and Revealing War Secrets.
Elisha's Miracle #23 is entitled Foreknowing the King’s Acts and is found in 2 Kings 6:32-33. This miracle involved the use of the Word of Knowledge. The gift of the Word of Knowledge is one of the nine gifts of the spirit and is the supernatural revelation by the Holy Ghost of certain facts in the mind of God. It is always present or past tense and it comes to an individual as an inward revelation. You simply know what you know. It can be received as the audible voice of God, through prophecy, through dreams and/or visions or it can be delivered by an angel. The Scriptures do not tell us how Elisha received his word from the Lord, but by using the Word of Knowledge Elisha was able to save his life.
Israel had lost their faith in God and their covenant relationship with Him. As a result, they lost their love for family and committed horrible acts against their own children. At the time of a great famine in Israel, King Jehoram heard the grotesque and cannibalistic dispute between two women who appealed to the King to settle their disagreement. The women had agreed to boil and eat their children on two separate days. The first child was eaten on the first day, but when the time came to eat the second child, the mother of that child hid him. The women wanted the King to settle the dispute.
King Jehoram was so disturbed about the cannibalism and starvation in Israel that he became unfairly angry at the man of God and decided to have Elisha murdered. He blamed this godly man for his own woes. In 2 Kings 6:32-33 the scriptures tell us that while Elisha was sitting with the elders, the King was actively sending a “messenger” to murder Elisha. Elisha “knew” that the murderer was on his way. He was then able to tell the elders to shut the door so that the murderer could not enter and hold him there, thereby saving his own life.
32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?
33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?
Miracles #16, 17 and 18 are entitled Revealing War Secrets. They are found in 2 Kings 6:8-13 and also involved Elisha’s use of the gift of the Word of Knowledge. When plans were made to attempt to destroy Israel, the Syrian King’s plans were revealed to Elisha by God. Elisha would then tell the King of Israel which areas he should avoid. The King of Syria was so disturbed that Israel knew all of his plans that he thought that someone in his own group was revealing his secrets. The servants of the Syrian King knew very well that it was Elisha the Prophet who was telling the war secrets and they conveyed this information to the Syrian king.
8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.
10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.
11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?
12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
The gift of the Word of Knowledge and the gift of the Word of Wisdom often work together, yielding information as well as the best ways to use that information in a manner that would not be known using natural means. 2 Corinthians 12:4-8 present these two gifts in the New Testament.
4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord
6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
Lesson learned: We learned from these Miracles of Elisha that the gift of the Word of Knowledge and the gift of the Word of Wisdom are not only New Testament phenomena, but they were active in the Old Testament as well. Elisha used these gifts effectively.
The Eighth lesson learned from the Miracles of Elisha is entitled Miraculous Utterances #1 and #2.
