0016. Elisha at Jericho
Elisha at Jericho
"And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho" (2Ki_2:4).
Jericho has some important suggestions for us.
1. Jericho is the place where faith triumphed over the world. Jericho was straitly shut up against Israel, but under Joshua’s leadership the Children of Israel marched around the wall seven days, and seven times on the seventh day, then the walls fell down.
When the life has known its Gilgal and its Bethel, it can overcome at Jericho.
Achan could not withstand the allurements of the city of Palm Trees.
It was at Jericho that he saw some goodly Babylonish garments, and some wedges of silver and gold. He saw, he coveted, and he took these cursed things and then he hid them in his tent. Achan suffered for his sin.
Believers are in the world, but they are not of it. We who know the Lord must beware how we touch the things at Jericho.
Our glory should be our separation from the world and our crucifixion to the world. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world".
2. Jericho is the place we begin to make encroachments onto Satan’s territory. Certainly, we may expect to find every possible resistment will be made. Yet we must pass round the walls that withstand our coming and claim victory in Christ’s Name.
No one can pass on to overcome the nations in the land until Jericho falls. Praise God for marvelous examples of men who have passed through Vanity Fair without being subdued by its vanities. Abraham gave up Haran. Moses gave up Egypt. Paul gave up Jerusalem.
In your life of following fully, have you come to Jericho and conquered there? Are you ready to press on toward other planes of triumph? Can you say with C. G. Trumbull:
"I yielded all, my struggles ceased,
Self died, the dear Christ lived instead
Within the soul that He released,
When He came in and self was dead.
"How wondrously He keeps me now,
In whom I live, who lives in me!
The thorn-crown pressed upon His brow
My coronet of victory."
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR