I'm reading 2 Kings 2 and verse 19. And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is nought, and the ground barren. looking this evening at this last few verses of chapter 2 and the two miracles of Elisha, the two miracles which begin his ministry and are symbolic of what his ministry is going to be like, mercy on the one hand and as you can see, judgment on the other. And my title really is just that, a ministry of mercy and of judgment. So Elisha has taken up the reins of Elijah. The mantle has been passed on, as we saw last week. And now, after some eight or nine years serving Elijah, Now he becomes the senior prophet. The mantle has fallen to him. The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha, they said. And here we begin to look at this evening at the beginning, the first Well, the second and third miracle, actually, of Elisha, the first one he did with the parting of the waters of the river Jordan. But these second and third miracles, as you said, are significant because this is what the ministry of Elisha is going to look like. Predominantly one of mercy. Predominantly one of grace. and yet also judgment, also warning. Now, before we look at this, just to say a little bit about the two, there is some difference. Even though the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha, he didn't carry out his ministry in the same way. There weren't two exact personalities. There was some difference between them. Elijah, as we know, was known for his sporadic appearances. He suddenly appears on the scene and he suddenly disappears. Very difficult to find the man. The king tried to find him. He couldn't find him. And you remember Obadiah. Obadiah also said, you know, when Elijah said, bring Ahab to me, more or less. And Obadiah was scared. Well, if I go and tell King Ahab, oh, Elijah is here, well, the spirit of the Lord may just take you away. And then I'll come back and you've disappeared again. And it seemed to be something of Elijah's lifestyle, that he was sometimes there and sometimes not. No one knew where he was. And Elijah is different. Elisha is going to be around. He's going to be mixing in and amongst the people. He's going to take up his habitation in Samaria. So everybody knows where the prophet is, this new senior prophet. He's going to be among the people. Easy to find Elisha. Elisha is also going to be gentler. Elijah was somewhat severe, austere, and maybe stern as the older prophet. And this is also reflected a bit in his clothing, the hairy garment that he wore and his appearance. I'm sure it frightened people as well when they saw Elijah. But Elisha didn't seem to wear a hairy garment. He just seemed to be a more gentle soul, and a more gentle ministry was coming through him. So we see a little bit more grace in Elisha, rather than judgment, but not a complete absence of warning. So there's some similarities in there between here and starting to think of John the Baptist as Elijah and Elisha sort of as somebody who was like a type of Christ and one who spoke more graciously, whereas John the Baptist, while he also tended to frighten people, with his warning messages and his dress. Everybody knew he was a prophet, but Christ came in a different way, with more gracious words. But these two miracles, then, we are given a foretaste of Elisha's future ministry. The first one, the miracle of the healing of the waters, a gracious act, a blessing, giving life. bringing life to the city. And that's what his ministry is going to be like. It's going to be life-giving. It's going to involve spiritual healing to individuals and many, and it's going to have some sort of purifying effect on souls. But the second miracle is one of judgment. The judgment of the Lord fell on these 42 children, these 42 young lads who had reproached not only Elijah, but also reproached the Lord. And the lesson for us is warning as well as grace must be a part of our ministry. We have to tell people that if they don't obey the commands of the Lord, If they don't obey his directives, well, there are consequences to not obeying. There is judgment. So not all love. Not only love, predominantly, yes, mercy, but also judgment. Blessing and cursing, mercy and judgment. This is what this is about. So let's look at the first miracle, the miracle of the healing of the waters. The men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant. This is Jericho, and it was located in a very good place. It was in a pleasant location, we read here. It was known for its palm trees and its fig trees, and it's been described as a paradise of Eastern beauty. And Josephus, the Jewish historian, described it as a fairyland. So it was a good place, obviously, to set up home. But you remember the history, I'm sure, of Jericho. But how it was attacked, it was the first city to be attacked by Joshua when they crossed over the Jordan, and how those walls came down, tumbling down miraculously. God did that. But God put a curse upon the one who would rebuild that city. And he said, whoever rebuilds the city and its walls, well, they would lose their children. They would lose their firstborn son in the gates, sorry, in the foundation thereof, and the youngest son in the when they set up the gates of the city. And this is exactly what happened in 1 Kings chapter 16 and verse 34, we read, In his days did Hiel, the Bethelite, build Jericho. He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun. So when he rebuilt it, and he started rebuilding the city, his firstborn son died. And as he continued building, he began to lose his other children as well. That's the idea here, not just that he lost his firstborn and his youngest, but he lost all his children until, when the work was finished, he laid the gates thereof in the death of his youngest son. So nothing deterred this man from rebuilding the city, and the curse, as the Lord pronounced, would happen, came upon him. But now it is rebuilt, now it's repopulated, and we read here that it is in a good location, but the water is not. The water is bad and the ground barren. Now the word barren there means to miscarry, to be deprived of children. And it seems to be that the effects of the bad water was to cause miscarriages. amongst the women, and to cause death amongst some of the people. And of course, the flocks would be included. Rather than the ground itself being barren, it seems rather to indicate that it was miscarriages which were taking place. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an ideal location to live. It wouldn't be a pleasant location if everybody was drinking bitter water or bad water, water filled with bacteria or whatever it may be. So it seems to be that people's health and the flocks and the herds were being affected by this bad water. And the men of the city come to Elisha, who's been staying there for a while, And they've obviously got to know him, and they've become familiar with him. And the men of the city, rather than the sons of the prophets who were also there, come to him and they ask him for help. The water is nought and the ground barren. Help us, do something about it. They obviously knew that he could. They hadn't seen any miracle as yet from him, but they knew that he had the power to help them. And just a little lesson for us is perhaps as we live out our Christian lives and bear a public testimony for the Lord in our neighborhoods or our workplace, people will see our lives and they will see that we have something that they don't. And maybe for a long time they won't come knocking at your door, but when there is trouble, they may come and say, can you pray for me? Can I tell you what happened? And they come to us for help and for some assistance in some way, because they've seen something in our lives. I'll give you an example of this. I was talking with a pastor just this week, and he told me that during the COVID time, a friend of his called him. And a friend asked specifically for this pastor to call him and to pray for him. He was in a hospital. He was suffering from COVID, maybe in a bad way. And he said, call this pastor, da-da-da, and I want him to pray for me. And the pastor called him and prayed for him, and he recovered. So people know who to call and they know where to go sometimes when they really have nowhere else to go. And it may be you. It may be one of us. Verse 22, Elisha calls for a new cruise, a new jar, a new vessel. and puts, he says, bring me a new cruz and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. A new cruz, uncontaminated and undefiled because, well, impurity, this impure waters must be cleansed by something that is clean, something that is pure. But salt, salt is going to be poured into the waters. My immediate thought is, well, if you put salt into the waters, that's going to make it undrinkable. Especially if you put a lot of salt into water, it makes it undrinkable. A little bit of salt poured into the waters, well, that's not going to be much use either. It was such a lot of water there. This is the spring of waters. And so it must be a symbolic act. It must be that the Lord directed Elisha to do this as a symbolic act. Salt, as you know, purifies, it cleanses, and that's what is happening here. The salt itself is not going to do anything. But it's just a symbolism of what the Lord is going to do to purify the water. But why a new cruise? Why a new vessel? Well, as we said, it mustn't be something uncontaminated. The lesson for us, I think, there is If we desire instrumentality and to be used of the Lord, we also must be holy. We also must be clean. Remember that verse, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And the Lord uses holy vessels. And if we want to be used of the Lord, as we all do, We must make a point of sanctification. We must make a point of growing in grace. We must make a point of living pure lives. Sanctification must be a priority for us if we desire to win souls. You remember the saying of Robert Murray McShane, that Scottish pastor, and how he said, My people's greatest need is my personal holiness. And we can all say that. The world's greatest needs is my personal holiness. That's what is going to be effective. And so when Elisha receives this new cruz and the salt, he heads straight to the spring of the waters where he pours the salt in there. He doesn't go half a mile or a mile down the road and pour the salt in. No, he does it, he goes right to the spring, which was about a mile or so outside Jericho. And he says, He's very careful with his words. And he wants the Lord to get all the glory. He wants the Lord to be recognized. He doesn't want himself, people to praise him and say, you did it, Elisha. No, he's very careful that the Lord is seen and gets all the glory, as he did. The Lord purified the waters. the death, and from thence there shall not be from thence any more death, or barren a land." And you can see, again, the word land is in italics. If you've got the King James Version to again show us, that's not there in the original. So again, the death. and the barrenness, the miscarriages, they stopped as a result of the Lord healing the waters. Well, Elisha went to the spring of waters. He didn't go halfway downstream. And when the Lord saves people, when He saves and heals us, He doesn't go half a mile down the road, as it were, beginning with our deeds and our actions. No, that's later. But he begins first with our hearts. He goes to the spring of our lives, the spring of our actions, the spring from whence come our words and our thoughts, our heart. And He gives us a new heart. He cleanses the heart and He gives us a new heart and new motives and new desires. And then our actions improve and get better. This is the way the Lord works. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It needs that cleansing. It needs changing. And so many people get it wrong here, isn't it? So many people try, and they try to sort out their outward lives first, they try and sort out their actions first, rather than dealing with the heart of the problem. That's why you have a lot of moral teaching, moral teaching in schools. Well, it has a place, I think. It's good to teach children moral things, especially today. What is morality, anyway, today? It's a question mark over that. But it's good for children to know these things, but it doesn't get to the heart of the problem. The real thing is conversion. That's what people need, and not just moral rules to follow. And also we see here in the healing of these waters how the Lord dealt with the curse of death. Just as these waters were causing death and were healed by the Lord, so also death itself, generally speaking. What's the cause of it? Well, we know it's sin. And the Lord went to the heart of the problem. He went to the spring of the cause of death, and he dealt with it. And so now, through his death on Calvary, the sting of death has been removed through his death and resurrection. And because of Christ, we live and we shall not die. So a blessing to Jericho. Maybe those waters were cursed, because from a long time back, from that original curse, or it may be something that happened later, we don't really know, cannot say for sure. But now the blessing has come and the curse, it seems, has been removed. Verse 22, so the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha which he spake. And then secondly, the next miracle is this judgment, verse 23. He went up from thence unto Bethel, no doubt to visit the sons of the prophets who were there. And as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head. Bethel, an idolatrous city, This was the place where Jeroboam, one of the two places where Jeroboam's golden calf was worshipped, the other being Dan. And Baal worship was also prominent here. But also Elijah had set up a school of the prophets. And so an idolatrous city. And as Elisha is going up to the city, well, these little children, we read, come out of the city and mock him. Little children. What kind of children are they? Are they young children, primary school of age? It seems not. This word is used in a very broad way in Scripture. It could mean young children, or it could mean just youths, adolescents. or young lads. I'll give you a couple of examples. In Abraham, the people, the men who fought with Abraham against the four kings, well, they were called young men. The same word is used. And you'd hardly expect young children to be going out fighting in a battle with Abraham. Again, Boaz. commanded his young men, the same word, to let Ruth glean among the sheaves. Again, you wouldn't expect children to be doing that kind of hard work. He would be older men, young adults maybe even. So these were unlikely to be little children, but more likely mixed age, but adolescents and some young men who went out to meet Elisha. And it seems to be a deliberate meeting, rather than one where they would just prowling around, not a lot of time on their hands. So you sometimes see people today on the streets, young groups of men. No, they were not just suddenly, unexpectedly, accidentally come across Elisha. And they're not just teasing him here and making fun of him. It's not just name-calling that is going on. This is something very deliberate. This is something almost we could say planned because this group seems to have been sent out by their own parents who were also idolatrous and didn't want Elisha and didn't want his message. And here they seem to have been sent out with a very purpose and intention to make him, to tell him in no uncertain terms that he was unwanted in the city. They were Baal worshippers, and they didn't want Elisha. They didn't want Jehovah. They didn't want the living God, the true God. And that's why they opposed his prophet. And it appears Though we're not, again, certain of this. But that news of Elijah's ascension to heaven had reached even their ears. The people here in Bethel. But they hadn't believed it. They didn't believe what had happened. Gone up in a chariot. Oh, yes. Tell us another one. But here they come. And when they use those words, go up, thou bold head. Go up, thou bold head. They're saying, go up like your master. Go up. You know, we don't want you here. We don't want you prophesying to us. Go up as well, you baldhead. And it's also, of course, they're insulting him because of his lack of hair. And they're saying to him, look at you. You're no prophet. You're no prophet. Look at it. You're not like Elijah. Elijah had tons of hair. Elijah had the hairy garment. We knew he was a prophet. We knew what he was like. You're nothing like him. Look at you. All you have is his mantle. That's all you've got. That's all. Nothing else about you. Look, what are you compared to Elijah? Go up, thou bald head. Go up. So they were so... so reviled him and spoke against him. But in doing this, of course, they were speaking against the Lord. In verse 24, Elisha turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tear forty and two children. Elisha pronounces a curse on them in the name of the Lord, at the bidding of the Lord, not from personal revenge, Not because he wanted to get his own back on these boys who were calling him names, these young lads, but at the command from the Lord. He received a directive from God himself to curse them. And immediately, or maybe a little bit after Elisha had moved on, these two she-bears come out of the wood and tear 40 and two of them. There were more than 42. Maybe there were 60 or 70, we don't know. But 42 of them were torn apart, were mauled by these two she-bears. A judgment from the Lord. They had opposed, they had reproached the Prophet. We don't want Jehovah. We don't want his message. We refuse to obey him. We want to serve Baal. Rebellious. And so this judgment falls upon them. And it's necessary right at the beginning of Elisha's ministry, also because you strike some fear into the people. Now they will be less reticent to speak against him. Maybe they'll be more keen to listen to what he has to say. Maybe now they will take him seriously and take his message seriously, like Elijah's. So there is some good effect from this judgment and a reason why it was permitted. So some lessons for us from this incident, friends. Children. Children. How are we training children? How are children being trained today? Train up a child in a certain way, and he will go in that direction for life. Train him up in evil, as some parents are doing, like these parents did, trained up their children to speak against the Lord. Oh, isn't it so? We see on the streets children speaking against the Lord. Where did they learn that from? Their parents, we have to say. It's most likely. Train up our children the other way. and bring them up in the ways of the Lord. And that's, while we cannot guarantee their salvation, yet we know at least they will be set out in a good way. A good start is given to them. And hopefully they will be good citizens. But it's important what we, children are taught from very young. But then also see the response that Elisha gave. He turned and looked at them and cursed them. Well, that's not really going to be our response when people abuse us because of the Lord's name. The Lord taught us differently in Matthew chapter 5. I'll just read to you. In the Beatitudes you know this. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So our task is not to revile back again, but to bless, to pray for those who persecute us. But at the same time also, Gospel preaching and witness, well, it must include, as I've said already a few times, some mourning to it. And people must realize that there are consequences to disobeying the Lord and remaining in willful rebellion and unbelief. So, Elisha, from here, verse 25, he makes his way to Mount Carmel, He's going to spend some time thinking about his ministry that is ahead of him, like the Apostle Paul spending some time in the wilderness of Arabia before he began really his ministry, and from thence, verse 25, Elisha returned to Samaria. So this is my message this evening. Elisha's ministry, grace, mercy, cleansing, forgiveness, and also warning. Our ministry as well. And let's think as well much about growing in grace and sanctification and holy living. Amen.