2 Kings 8-10

I want to discuss obedience again as the opening section of chapter 8 highlights a great example. We read of the Woman in chapter 8 previously in chapter 4 where Elisha had healed her son. Elisha gives her a word from the Lord telling her to leave:

1Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” 2The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

So the Woman spent 7 years in a foreign land and returned. The Lord was faithful to her as all her property was returned to her that she had abandoned 7 years earlier:

6The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.
Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

This woman chose to obey the voice of the Lord and left to a foreign place. Famine was widespread in her homeland and she left for an unknown land. Her story has some similarities to a lot of our own stories. We may not have left our home because of famine but most of us left for somewhere foreign because our family obeyed the voice of the Lord. What's great about this story is what the Lord restored to the woman. Not only did she receive the land she left behind but also all the money/income she would have made from her crops.

Obedience is so important in our relationship with God. Often our obedience means we sacrifice something. The woman sacrificed her home and her livelihood. We often have sacrificed friendships or material things when we've followed the voice of the Lord. More importantly was that we chose to listen and act on what the Lord spoke to us. By putting God first the woman sacrificed but the Lord restored what was lost more abundantly. If you're concerned about things you've missed out on don't dwell on whats gone before but focus on the opportunities that are ahead in the knowledge that the Lord is with you. 

Written by Philip Day