Salty Water – EP86 (2Kings 2:19-22)
2 Kings 2:19-22
The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive
Hello and welcome back to the One Thing podcast. I'm so excited to share a story that really touched my heart this week it's coming from the book of 2 Kings, chapter 2 verses 19 to 22. And we find Elisha, the prophet of God, who is approached by some men of the town of Jericho and they approach him about a situation about the water of the city. And it goes as this, “The people of the city said to Elisha, ‘Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.’ ‘Bring me a new bowl,’ he said, ‘and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.”’ And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.”
"...apart from the Lord Jesus Christ it doesn't matter about what we do on the outside unless it's coming from Christ on the inside."What I found so interesting was that this town of Jericho - it says that it is “well situated.” The people are basically coming to Elisha saying, ‘Listen, you can see that we're in a great place. You can see that on the outside everything looks so well.’ And I can't help but to think for a moment, when we look at certain people when we may look at our own lives maybe we look okay on the outside. Seemingly we have all of the possessions that we may need we have all the things we may need a nice house a nice car money - whatever it may be. Yet on the inside, if we were to stop and to really think what was on the inside, we find as this is described it says, “‘...the water is bad and the land is unproductive.’”
See apart from the Lord Jesus Christ it doesn't matter about what we do on the outside unless it's coming from Christ on the inside. See these waters - Proverbs says in chapter 20, the purposes of man's heart is described as deep waters. I can't help but to correlate the two and see that these waters are symbolic of our heart apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
It says that it caused death. See, sin in the heart of man causes death - maybe not a physical death but a spiritual death. And it causes us to be unproductive. Have you ever felt, ‘Wow! God I would love to be productive in Your Kingdom. I would love to produce fruit but Father there is something that is holding me back. These waters seem unproductive my heart just seems to be held back by some dark power by some sinfulness.’ Whatever it may be today, may God be able to come as He did through Elisha and to pour out His salt.
"See, when the Lord touches you you can't help but to turn to Him."What is that salt - that salt was the salt of the power of God. That salt - when you look in the Scripture, salt is used for so many different things but one thing that catches my mind is how salt was used to purify. He says in the Word of God - Jesus says that all people will one day be salted with fire. When we think of the purifying qualities of fire and even of salt, that is what the power of God does. He purifies us He's able to take a heart that was maybe in fullness of wickedness, maybe distant from God. Maybe there was a part of us that just was so lost in the world so lost going our own way doing our own thing. Yet, when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we call upon His Name, we can be salted with purity we can be cleansed and washed of our sin. And what is the evidence of that? We see that this water was made pure - and it remains pure even to this day. See, when the Lord touches you you can't help but to turn to Him. You can't help but to begin to serve Him to now become productive in the Kingdom.
"I ask today: What kind of waters do we have on the inside..."I ask today: What kind of waters do we have on the inside what waters are flowing? Are they waters - is it a heart, is it a will - that has been salted with the goodness of God now productive in doing the works and the things of faith the works and the things of God? Or is it a water that is in darkness - a water that is unproductive? Causing death because of sinfulness or wickedness?
I pray today that we would be those as these waters were salted as this fountain was salted that today we would be salted by God. Filled with the Spirit of God - touched by His presence. May you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ today. May the waters be washed and clean - and may we be those who are productive in the Kingdom, worshipping the Lord and bringing Him glory in everything that we do all of our decisions, and in all of our walk.
Be blessed today, and I'm just thankful for the Word of the Lord. May it touch our hearts, and may God have His way. Amen.