Consumed by Opportunism

But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said to himself, “My master should not have let this Aramean get away without accepting any of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and get something from him.” – 2 Kings 5:20

Some people are entrepreneurial to the point where they never let an opportunity get away without seizing it. I supposed that sometimes that works, but probably more often it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, they have to cut their losses.

Behind the scenes, something more the entrepreneurial nature can kick in. We’re sinful after all, right? Perhaps some opportunities should be left alone.

Today we’re breaking our six month rule to share a devotional with you from Pastor Jack Jacob, who writes at Meanderings of a Minister. Click the link in the title below to read this where it first appeared. (There’s a movie monster pic waiting for you if you do!) You’ll also find a link to listen to the devotional on Spotify. We’ve linked a recommended second article if you’d like to read more of his writing.

If you’re unfamiliar with today’s story, or just want to dig deeper, as I did this morning, it’s from 2 Kings 5.

The Monster Within

I used to really enjoy the old monster movies as a young boy. No, not the Dracula, Frankenstein or Mummy movies. I enjoyed the old Godzilla movies and others that were imported from Japan and badly dubbed. I am not sure what I liked about watching them as they were usually cheaply made, badly acted and the mouths never lined up with the words, but I did. Looking back psychoanalytically, I guess it might have been the fact that the monster supposedly came from a little normal looking creature and, after exposure to nuclear waste, high voltage, chemicals or a volcano (depending on the movie), they turned into an incredibly powerful monster that was super-powerful and mostly misunderstood. I mean, Godzilla didn’t MEAN to crush the tiny model cars, he just couldn’t see them! He couldn’t even turn his head without turning his whole body. But I digress.

As I was reading 2 Kings 5:20-26, I began to think about how this same situation lies within all of us. No, we will probably not grow to tower over a fake Tokyo, but there lies within all of us a monster that would love to get out and wreak havoc on our world. How did I get that from 2 Kings 5:20-26? Glad you asked.

Gehazi was the servant of Elisha. Elisha had just passed God’s healing along to the commander of the forces of Israel’s enemy, Aram. The man’s name was Naaman. Naaman came back after being healed of leprosy and offered to pay Elisha, but Elisha refused to accept payment because it was God Who healed and not Elisha. That is when the monsters within Gehazi started to rise.

First was the monster of pride. Gehazi even refers to Naaman as “this Aramean”. Gehazi’s pride rose up and was upset that Elisha did not make this foreigner pay, so he went after him to make some money for himself. The monster not only leads Gehazi to look down on Naaman, but also causes Gehazi to invoke the Name of the Lord in a way that takes that Name in vain. Gehazi didn’t care that he was doing wrong because the monster of pride was large and in charge.

Next, the monster of deception began to rise. Fueled by the monster of pride’s success, the monster of deception next became active. Gehazi ran after Naaman expending more energy to deceive than it would have taken to trust God to provide for him as he continued to serve Elisha. This monster arose in Gehazi’s heart and caused him to not only leave his station of service, but to lie as well.

Next, the monster of relative morality reared its ugly head. Seeing the other two monsters had been successful, relative morality became active. The nuclear waste of sin caused him to grow. What is relative morality? It is when we feel like others should do right, but we feel free to define what that is based upon what we perceive we are entitled to or need. In this case, Gehazi lied, deceived, stole, left his post and said, “All is well!”

We are not finished with these monsters yet. The last monster to arise was hardness of heart. Being called on the carpet for his actions, Gehazi, instead of confessing to his wrongdoing, felt so justified in his actions that he then lied to Elisha. The thing about this monster is its ability to cause us to forget what we know and become ignorant. Gehazi had seen Elisha raise the dead, heal the sick, call down the armies of heaven and had even been witness to Elisha being able to read the minds of foreign kings. Normally, Gehazi would have known he would be found out, but this monster had grown so rapidly that he had been left in a moral stupor.

The story ends with Gehazi being given the leprosy that had been removed from Naaman. A foreigner is healed and changed and a person that should have known better is cursed and made sick. That is how these monsters work.

How about you? Are any of these monsters being fed in your life? If so, why not turn away from that, confess your wrongdoing to God and ask Him to help you to put them to rest? He will listen and He will help.

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Second Helping:

Originally, this article, Godly Wisdom vs. Worldly Wisdom was my first choice from Jack Jacob for today. It reminds of two key scripture passages, and gets into the more 201-oriented issue of “ministry envy;” or being jealous of someone else in ministry. But I decided to go with the story of Gehazi, despite the absence of embedded scriptures, because I thought some might be less familiar with the passage after Naaman is healed.  Now that you know that, I encourage you to read Godly Wisdom.

Choosing Not to See

Today we’re returning to the devotional writing of Charles Price, Minister-at-Large for The Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada. To read more devotions by him, click this link. To read this one at source, click the header which follows. (This devotional also ties in with tomorrow’s topic.)

Hardened Heart

“…the others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day.’”  —Romans 11:7-8

Like a king, Jesus rode triumphantly on a donkey into Jerusalem. Like a priest, Jesus went into the temple and drove out the merchants. And like a prophet, Jesus stood and taught in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes did not like what Jesus was doing but did not want to merely put a knife in Him, rather they wanted to legally bring Jesus to a point where they could get rid of Him. Therefore, one day, they challenged Jesus by asking, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things…Who gave You this authority?” Instead of answering their question directly, Jesus gives them a question in return, “I will also ask you a question. Tell Me: John’s baptism––was it from heaven, or of human origin?” (Luke 20:2-4).

This question stumped the chief priests and the scribes. Not only was Jesus’s question a clever debating ploy, He posed that question to expose their lack of honesty and integrity, because these men were not dealing objectively with the facts. If these men were honest, they would have said, “We don’t want to answer this question,” since either answer would have got them into trouble. But they answered, “We don’t know where it was from” (Luke 20:7), which revealed their problem of failing to see the truth and failing to see who Jesus was because their hearts were hardened against it. The issue was not that they could not see but that they did not want to see.

The biggest barrier to Christ in many people is not the mind but the attitude. If their hearts are hardened against Him in the first place, their attitudes become hardened. We find this hardening process throughout the gospels, such as in Jesus’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand. Mark tells us, “for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:52). They had not been able to deduce any logical conclusions about who Jesus was when He miraculously fed them, not because they did not have eyes to see what was happening or did not participate in eating the bread and the fish, but because their hearts were hardened. It is much easier to teach an uninformed mind than to break a hardened heart. Yet, these hardened hearts are found throughout the New Testament.

As we honestly reflect on ourselves, what is our true heart condition before God? Is our heart open or hardened towards Jesus? May we ask God to open our eyes to understanding, break our hardened hearts and cause us to come into a living relationship with Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, open my eyes to see You, break my hardened heart and bring me into a living relationship with You. Thank You, Lord!

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Their Hearts Were Hardened

by Russell Young

The Lord had hardened the hearts of Pharaoh and his officials when Moses asked for the freedom of God’s chosen people being held captive in Egypt. This hardening was done to accomplish his purposes. The purpose for hardening their hearts was so that the story of his miraculous signs would be relayed through the generations of Israel that they might know that he is the LORD. (Ex 10:1) He has hardened hearts throughout history in order to accomplish his purposes. However, Christ also spoke of the hardness of people’s hearts that inhibited or prevented the furtherance of the gospel and the hope of salvation.

Having a “hard” heart or a hardened heart means that a person’s heart is fixed on an issue as engraved in stone. It is not a heart of flesh that is malleable and can be influenced. A hard heart is not sensitive to anything other than its own interests and goals. It is not a humble heart but is often one that is prideful. As stated, God can harden a heart, but so can individuals. People can have hard hearts in relation to the Word and in relation to others.

The Lord stated that the hearts of his disciples were hard at times in referring to their lack of comprehension or understanding. (Mk 6:52; 8:17; Jn 12:40; Eph 4:18) It is troublesome when the hearts of believers have become hardened and fixed concerning others in the family of God so that they will not even examine the convictions of one another to discern underlying truths. God does not want his created people to have hard hearts and no one can come to him whose heart cannot be molded into the likeness of that of his Son. (Rom 8:29)

It is easy to find people with hardened hearts. They cannot conceive of the truth of God’s sovereignty over the world and all that is. They are not willing to see the divine hand of God in creation or in the miracles about them. They have trouble listening to or considering others and their opinions. They are often selfish and self-centered. We should be careful about applying the label of hardheartedness to others, however, until we have considered our own state. Most people have areas in life where a stubbornness and dogmatism persists and where the heart is no longer malleable and the Spirit’s influence is resisted. This does not mean that a person’s values and “truths” should be easily altered. The gospel is truth, after all, along with the rest of God’s Word; however, only God knows pure truth.

Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27 NIV) ‘Listening’ is the sign of a receptive heart, a heart eager to absorb or accept the Lord’s teachings and directions. Obediently ‘following’ is indication of a sensitive heart. Paul told the Ephesians that they must “no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their heart. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.” (Eph 4:17─19 NIV) Their hardening prevented the knowledge of truth and the presence and leading of the Spirit for righteousness.

Every believer should examine himself or herself to check for hard spots in their heart. Honesty might reveal that there are more than they would like to accept. Regardless, Christ condemned blindness and ignorance to his teaching. He requires obedience to the Spirit; hearts that are sensitive and able to be led. It is easy to dismiss one’s ungodly attitudes and behaviors if they are common to those around, even the ungodly. Society gives many permissions that the Lord does not and one day all of those who call themselves by his name will have to answer for their rejection of his righteous standards. He knows because he is in the believer trying to lead and to gain victory. “[T]hose who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rom 8:14 NIV) Victory cannot be gained by those who have hardened their hearts to sin, and particularly to a favorite sin.

The hearts of the Israelites were hardened and they could not understand or accept God’s righteous requirements. The writer of Hebrews cautioned his readers: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion during the time of testing in the desert.” (Heb 3:8) Accept it or not, those who belong to Christ today are wandering in the desert with the aridness of sin and deceit all around them. They have pledged that Christ was their Lord (Rom 10:9) and he desires to lead them to victory to the promised land, but they must have hearts that are sensitive and are prepared to obediently follow. (Heb 5:9)

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Russell Young is the Sunday contributor to Christianity 201 and author of Eternal Salvation: “I’m Okay! You’re Okay!” Really? available in print and eBook through Westbow Publishing, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble; and in Canada through Chapters/Indigo.

9781512757514

To read all of Russell’s contributions here at C201, click this link