Study Desk

Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So Elisha sent this message to the king: "Why did you tear your clothes? Let Naaman come to me. Then he will know there is a prophet in Israel."

Naaman became angry and left. He said, "I thought Elisha would at least come out and stand in front of me and call on the name of the Lord his God. I thought he would wave his hand over my body and heal the leprosy.

So Naaman did what the man of God said. He went down and dipped himself in the Jordan River seven times, and he became pure and clean. His skin became soft like the skin of a baby.

Naaman and his whole group came back to the man of God. He stood before Elisha and said, "Look, I now know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now please accept a gift from me."

And I pray that the Lord will forgive me for this: When my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship that false god, he will want to lean on me for support. So I must bow down in the temple of Rimmon. I ask the Lord now to forgive me when that happens."

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "Look, my master has let Naaman the Aramean go without accepting the gift that he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after Naaman and get something from him."

The man of God said, "Where did it fall?" The man showed Elisha the place where the ax head fell. Then Elisha cut a stick and threw the stick into the water. The stick made the iron ax head float.

But the man of God sent a message to the king of Israel. Elisha said, "Be careful! Don't go by that place, because the Aramean soldiers are hiding there!"

The king of Israel sent a message to his men at the place that the man of God warned him about. And the king of Israel saved quite a few men.

These horses and chariots of fire came down to Elisha. He prayed to the Lord and said, "I pray that you will cause these people to become blind." So God did what Elisha asked. He caused the Aramean army to become blind.

The king said, "May God punish me if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat is still on his body at the end of this day!"

Then the officer who was close to the king answered the man of God. The officer said, "Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen." Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food."

There was one officer who always stayed close by the king to help him. The king sent this officer to guard the gate, but the people knocked him down and trampled him, and he died. So everything happened just as the man of God had said when the king came to Elisha's house.

But that officer had answered the man of God, "Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen!" And Elisha had told the officer, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food."

So the woman did what the man of God said. She went with her family to stay in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king said to Gehazi, "Please tell me all the great things Elisha has done."

Elisha went to Damascus. King Ben-Hadad of Aram was sick. Someone told Ben-Hadad, "The man of God has come here."

Then the King Ben-Hadad said to Hazael, "Take a gift and go meet the man of God. Ask him to ask the Lord if I will get well from my sickness."

Elisha began to stare. He stared for an embarrassingly long time. Then the man of God began to cry.

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the young prophet poured the oil on Jehu's head and said to him, "The Lord , the God of Israel, says, ‘I am anointing you to be the new king over the Lord 's people, Israel.