{"id":4799,"date":"2023-06-03T19:36:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T00:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2023-06-03T19:36:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T00:36:48","slug":"devotional-on-2-kings-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-2-kings-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 2 Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Bnysz_PXhiU\/XnoXEU4Jh3I\/AAAAAAABEUs\/eVPgwOTn1hM0kWIhR9QR4rQ0CY4JQhTzwCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/20170813_165105.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2017 &#8211; KIdder Recreation Area &#8211; Wahpeton, ND &#8211; Red River<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nLittle deals are sometimes big deals<br \/>\n2Kings 13: The king struck the ground three times and then quit.<br \/>\nThe old prophet Elisha is nearing the end of life. Unlike his mentor, Elijah, he&#8217;ll not depart this world in a whirlwind. Instead, he\u2019ll die from old age and illness. However, before he goes, he has good news for Jehoash, king of Israel. The king is instructed to fire an arrow in the direction of his enemies. Then Elisha instructs him to strike the ground with the remaining arrows. Obviously, this is supposed to be an action related to their struggle with Aram but the king only strikes the ground a few times and stops. Elisha tells him that what he does isn\u2019t good enough and that his minimum cooperation is symbolic of the few times he&#8217;ll defeat Aram. Had he responded with enthusiasm and commitment things could have been different but his token response will result in only a token defeat of Aram. The wise man of Ecclesiastes says, &#8220;Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might&#8221; (Eccl. 9:10). Had Jehoash been ordered to actually go into battle he would have, no doubt, done it with &#8220;all his might&#8221; but since this was merely symbolic he just gave a token effort. With that, Elisha and, apparently God, is displeased. So as I read this story I\u2019m reminded that things that appear to me to be a &#8220;little deal&#8221; are sometimes a &#8220;big deal&#8221; in God&#8217;s eyes.<br \/>\nTake Away: If the Lord says \u201cdo it\u201d then do whatever it is with everything you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Little deals are sometimes big deals 2Kings 13: The king struck the ground three times and then quit. The old prophet Elisha is nearing the end of life. Unlike his mentor, Elijah, he&#8217;ll not depart this world in a whirlwind. Instead, he\u2019ll die from old age and illness. However, before he goes, he has good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1479,7],"tags":[117,192,304,314],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14484,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions\/14484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}