What Are Covenant Bears? (2 Kings 2:15-25, John 4:7-14, John 7:37-38)
Rev. William L. Barron, March 13, 2022Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
God's work, done God's way, receives God's blessing and God's protection. Covenant bears is a description proposed by Dale Ralph Davis in understanding today's passage. God's mantle had been passed from Elijah to Elisha, but the Sons of the Prophets did not grant him authority right away. Not satisfied, they searched for Elijah and did not find him. God, therefore, taught the Sons a lesson. Jericho was doomed by bad water. The people went to Elisha for help. In Joshua 6: 26, we see Joshua place a curse on anyone who would rebuild Jericho after its destruction by the Israelites. Any rebuilder would lose his first and second sons. Under King Ahab, Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho at the cost of his sons Abiram and Segub, and no one seemed to care. The bowl of salt that Elisha used to purify the bad water is a picture of the covenant, which required that salt be used to season the offerings. Elisha is proclaiming, "This is a covenant matter!". Iniquity needs to be purified. In the Gospel of John. Jesus offers the Samaritan woman living water and later on to anyone who thirsts. This living water is a picture of salvation. The Jericho water purification points to Jesus. Salt purifies, including our speech (Paul to the Colossians). We are called to a different standard, purified language and lives. God preserves us in relationship with Him. The Word of God is salt; it "purifies" trials into blessings. Elisha went on from Jericho to Bethel. The boys cursing Elisha may have been a big gang completely lacking in character. They ridiculed God's anointed prophet. Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord. Leviticus 26 concerning our covenant responsibilities pronounces a curse upon the children of those who reject God, that they will be devoured by wild beasts. Do we reject God's covenant? Do we give His commands mere lip service? Do we realize that following God carries with it a cost, and that we should have a holy fear of destruction? Blessing came to Jericho by the Word of God. Likewise, destruction came to the families of Bethel by the covenant-prophesied purification of rejection, contained in the Word of God.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « Remaining Faithful | None | There Is A Little Mesha All Around Us! » |
2 Kings 2:15–25 (Listen)
15 Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. It may be that the Spirit of the LORD has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.” 17 But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send.” They sent therefore fifty men. And for three days they sought him but did not find him. 18 And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, “Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?”
19 Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” 20 He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the LORD, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” 22 So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
23 He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” 24 And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. 25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
(ESV)
John 4:7–14 (Listen)
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
(ESV)
John 7:37–38 (Listen)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
(ESV)