2 Kings 2:19-21 (NLT)
19 One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.” 20 Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.”
While reading this passage, I was immediately drawn to it. Everything around them was pleasant and looked nice but the land was unproductive. The first thing that came to mind was the old saying, “don't judge a book by its cover.” Most of us have picked up a book at some point only to find out that it was a great marketing job on the illustration page but full of useless information on the inside. Perhaps, it might have been the other way around and the book had an unattractive cover on the outside but was full of useful and captivating information on the inside.
As I read this, “new bowl” and “salt” kept popping out.. Salt is used in so many different illustrations in the Bible and even today you can walk into just about any restaurant and find it sitting on the table. It has stood the test of time! The "new bowl" filled with "salt" brought to mind our new life filled with Christ. Not the old bowl rinsed out, cleaned up, and dried off -- but A NEW BOWL! Good bye old, hello new!
The really cool part about this story is that the salt (Christ) was carried in the bowl (us). We are His vessel! Elisha didn’t throw the bowl into the water supply. He threw the salt into the water. The bowl by itself was useless! A bowl is only as good as what it is filled with. In this story, the salt that was in that one bowl brought an entire town to life AND eliminated infertility! (AKA ...more life in the future)
God is so much bigger than we are! We put water purifiers on our kitchen sinks and fridgerators or buy bottled water. But we serve a God who goes out and cleans the entire source! No more changing filters. He is the filter! And anything that passes through Him always comes out clean! And that makes me smile! (really big) I‘m feeling kinda thirsty now and think I'll have a glass of water. Thank you, Lord! We love you!
19 One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.” 20 Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.”
While reading this passage, I was immediately drawn to it. Everything around them was pleasant and looked nice but the land was unproductive. The first thing that came to mind was the old saying, “don't judge a book by its cover.” Most of us have picked up a book at some point only to find out that it was a great marketing job on the illustration page but full of useless information on the inside. Perhaps, it might have been the other way around and the book had an unattractive cover on the outside but was full of useful and captivating information on the inside.
As I read this, “new bowl” and “salt” kept popping out.. Salt is used in so many different illustrations in the Bible and even today you can walk into just about any restaurant and find it sitting on the table. It has stood the test of time! The "new bowl" filled with "salt" brought to mind our new life filled with Christ. Not the old bowl rinsed out, cleaned up, and dried off -- but A NEW BOWL! Good bye old, hello new!
The really cool part about this story is that the salt (Christ) was carried in the bowl (us). We are His vessel! Elisha didn’t throw the bowl into the water supply. He threw the salt into the water. The bowl by itself was useless! A bowl is only as good as what it is filled with. In this story, the salt that was in that one bowl brought an entire town to life AND eliminated infertility! (AKA ...more life in the future)
God is so much bigger than we are! We put water purifiers on our kitchen sinks and fridgerators or buy bottled water. But we serve a God who goes out and cleans the entire source! No more changing filters. He is the filter! And anything that passes through Him always comes out clean! And that makes me smile! (really big) I‘m feeling kinda thirsty now and think I'll have a glass of water. Thank you, Lord! We love you!