WWUTT 529 Mantle Grabbing?

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There is a false teaching called mantle -grabbing. It comes from a story involving Elisha's dead bones in 2

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Kings chapter 13. There is really something more significant to this story than the myth of mantle -grabbing when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. We continue with our study in the book of 2

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Kings, today reading chapters 12 and 13. We will finish today with the death of Elisha.

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Yes, unfortunately, we have to say farewell to Elijah's understudy, at least as far as the narrative is concerned.

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Beginning in chapter 12. Well, first, you know what? I think I have to finish chapter 11. I didn't finish all of chapter 11 last week.

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There's one more verse yet that I have to read. And that's verse 21. Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

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All right. Now we've finished chapter 11 and we're on to chapter 12. So Jehoash is ruling in Judah and Jehu is king of Israel.

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Remember that? So in the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem.

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His mother's name was Zebiah of Beersheba. And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the

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Lord all his days, even from seven years old on, because Jehoiada, the priest, instructed him.

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Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away. The people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

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Now, this was not as grave a sin as Jehu was guilty of because Jehu left the golden calves up.

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So there was worship to false gods taking place in Israel. But for Jehoash, he left the high places intact, which was still disobeying

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God because God had said that worship offerings were supposed to be conducted in the temple in Jerusalem.

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There was not supposed to be these multiple places of worship because God is one God. And so this was symbolized by one place of worship, which was the temple in the place where God said the temple was supposed to be constructed.

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So the worship of God was taking place in these high places. It wasn't like they were worshiping false gods, but it was still disobedient.

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So Jehoash did not reform worship in Israel. Nonetheless, he loved the

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Lord, his God, with all his heart, soul, mind and strength. In verse 4, Jehoash said to the priests, all the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of the

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Lord, the money for which each man is assessed, the money from the assessment of persons, and the money that a man's heart prompts him to bring into the house of the

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Lord. Let the priests take each from his donor and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.

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So he didn't reform worship, but he took good care of the house of the Lord. But by the twenty -third year of King Jehoash, which would have been by the time he was thirty years old now, the priests had made no repairs on the house.

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Therefore, King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, why are you not repairing the house?

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Now therefore, take no money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house. So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people and that they should not repair the house.

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So basically, the priests had decided that the money that was taken from the people should not be spent on mere building repairs.

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It should be spent on more important things, although we're not really told what those things are. It was likely that the priests wanted to spend the money on themselves, but they were already well taken care of.

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We also are not told in the story here that they lavished the money on themselves because the money was still there.

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So Jehoash simply took control of the operation, the project to make repairs on the temple.

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And here's what he did. Verse nine. Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bore a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the

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Lord. And the priest who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the

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Lord. And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was found in the house of the

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Lord. Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the

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Lord. And they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the

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Lord and to the masons and the stone cutters, as well as to buy timber and queried stone for making repairs on the house of the

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Lord and for any outlay for the repairs of the house. But there was not made for the house of the

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Lord basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or of silver from the money that was brought into the house of the

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Lord, for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the Lord with it.

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And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.

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The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the

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Lord. It belonged to the priests. So again, the priests were well taken care of.

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There was not a reason for them to have to hoard all of the other money that was collected and they gave it back up for the service of repairs.

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So verse 17, at that time, Hazael, king of Syria, remember Hazael, went up and fought against Gath and took it.

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And Gath, if in case you forgot, is the place where Goliath was from.

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That's the first place that we saw Gath mentioned in our story of the kings.

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First and second Samuel, first and second Kings. But my pages are stuck together. When Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, Jehoash, the king of Judah, took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, the king of Judah, kings of Judah had declared.

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And his own sacred gifts and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house.

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And he sent these to Hazael, king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem, bought peace with Hazael.

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Now, the rest of the acts of Joash or Jehoash, same person, just different spelling.

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And all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Milo on the way that goes down to Silla.

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It was Jehoshaphat, the son of Shemioth and Jehoshaphat, the son of Shomer, his servants who struck him down so that he died.

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And they buried him with his fathers in the king of in the city of David. And Ahaziah, his son, reigned in his place.

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So Joash was 47 years old when he was assassinated. Why was he murdered?

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We just see that there was a conspiracy against him. They struck him down. He was killed. But why?

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The book of Second Kings doesn't tell us that. Ah, but we find out when we go to Second Chronicles, Chapter 24.

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And there we read again about how Jehoiada oversaw some of the reconstruction efforts or the repair efforts that were being made in the house of the

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Lord. And burnt offerings were made in the temple regularly all the days of Jehoiada.

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In verse 15, But Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and he died. He was 130 years old at his death, and they buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel and toward God and his house.

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Now, after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king and the king listened to them.

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And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols.

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And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the

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Lord. These testified against them, but they would not pay attention. Then the

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Spirit of God clothed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them,

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Thus says God, Why do you break the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper?

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Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king, they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the

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Lord. Thus Joash, the king, did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his son.

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And when he was dying, he said, May the Lord see and avenge.

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So then verse 23, At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against Joash.

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They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent their spoil to the king of Damascus.

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Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army because Judah had forsaken the

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Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash. When they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and they killed him on his bed.

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So he died and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings, which was a huge insult.

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Those who conspired against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeoth, the Ammonite, and Jehozabad, the son of Shemrith, the

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Moabite. Accounts of his sons and of the many oracles against him and of the rebuilding of the house of God are written in the story of the book of the

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Kings and Amaziah, his son reigned in his place. So now we return back to chapter 13.

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Now that we have some blanks filled in, thanks to first and second chronicles, we're back to first and second

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Kings. Well, specifically second Kings chapter 13 in the 23rd year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoaz, the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria and he reigned 17 years.

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He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made

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Israel to sin. He did not depart from them. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

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And he gave them continually into the hand of Hazael, king of Syria and into the hand of Ben Hadad, the son of Hazael.

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Then Jehoaz sought the favor of the Lord and the Lord listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.

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Therefore, the Lord gave Israel a savior so that they escaped from the hand of the Syrians and the people of Israel lived in their homes as formerly.

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Nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them.

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And the Asherah also remained in Samaria. Remember, the Asherah is the mother

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God. So or believed to be God's wife. So they're still worshiping this other false god there in Israel.

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For there was not left to Jehoaz an army of more than 50 horsemen and 10 chariots and 10 ,000 footmen for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

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Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoaz and all that he did and all of his might, are they not written in the book of the

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Chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Jehoaz slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria and Jehoash his son reigned in his place.

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In the 37th year of Jehoash, the king of Judah, Jehoash, the son of Jehoaz, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and he reigned 16 years.

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He also did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made

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Israel to sin, but he walked in them. Now, the rest of the acts of Jehoash and all that he did and the might with which he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the

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Chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Jehoash slept with his fathers and Jeroboam sat on his throne and Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

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Remember, whenever we read that a king in Israel did the same sins that Jeroboam did, he was the first king in the divided kingdoms.

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So once the the kingdom of Israel was divided into the north and the south after Solomon had sinned against God, Jeroboam was the first king of Israel, the northern kingdom.

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And what he did was he raised up golden calves and he also set a house of worship in Bethel, which was also disobedience to God because the house of worship was supposed to be there in Jerusalem.

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So Bethel was kind of the center point for Israel's apostasy. And and the golden calves, of course, were being worshipped there in Israel.

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So whenever we read that the golden calves are being worshipped and that there are priests in Bethel doing what the priests are only supposed to be doing in Jerusalem.

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So anyway, that's the continued sins of what Jeroboam did and caused all of Israel to sin because of his idolatrous leadership.

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Now we get to the death of Elisha here, which starts in verse 14. Now, when

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Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash, the king of Israel, went down to him and wept before him, crying,

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My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. So basically what

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Joash is asking Elisha for is the protection of the armies of God.

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These are the same armies that we read about at the start of the chapter that separated Elisha.

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I'm sorry, the start of the book that separated Elisha from Elijah. And then Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind.

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And then when the Israelites were surrounded by their enemies, Elisha showed his servant that the armies of the

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Lord were even greater and they were there. And so these are those armies that are protecting

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Israel. And this King Joash, not the same Joash we read about earlier, but anyway, this

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King Joash is worried that when Elisha dies, are the armies going to be gone?

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We won't have those armies protecting us anymore. So that's what he's asking Elisha for. This Joash, unlike the

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Joash we read about in chapter 12, this Joash is a wicked king. And so he's not really fearful of God, doesn't have a heart that honors

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God. He just wants to know we're not going to be wiped out by our enemies. So Elisha said to him, verse 15, take a bow and arrows.

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So he took a bow and arrows and he said to the king of Israel, draw the bow. And the king drew it and Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands.

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And he said, open the window eastward. And he opened it. And then Elisha said, shoot.

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And he shot. And he said, the Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria, for you shall fight the

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Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them. And he said, take the arrows.

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And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, strike the ground with them. And he struck three times and then stopped.

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Then the man of God, Elisha, was very angry with him and said, you should have struck five or six times.

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Then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it. But now you will strike down Syria only three times.

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So Elisha died and they buried him. Now, bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year.

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And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha.

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And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood to his feet.

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Now, Hazael, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoaz. But the

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Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them. And he turned toward them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.

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Because, again, Second Kings is being read after or it's being written compiled.

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You probably put it that way after the exile has taken place. When Hazael, king of Syria, died,

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Ben Hadad, his son, became king in his place. Different Ben Hadad. Then Jehoash, the son of Jehoaz, took again from Ben Hadad, the son of Hazael, the cities that he had taken from Jehoaz, his father, in war.

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Three times, Jehoash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel, just as Elisha said that he would.

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And speaking of Elisha, let's go back to this story here of this body being thrown on top of him.

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And then the body was instantly revived as soon as it touched the bones of Elisha.

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Clearly, the power that God had given Elisha to revive the dead still resided in his bones even after he died.

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This passage is the very passage that Bethel Church uses. Bill Johnson uses to justify what is called mantle grabbing.

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This idea of of soaking up the essence of a dead saint from their grave and then carrying on with the spirit that they left behind.

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Bill Johnson contributed to a book, Physics of Heaven, which was published in 2012. He said the following.

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There are anointings, mantles, revelations and mysteries that have lain unclaimed literally where they were left because the generation that walked in them never passed them on.

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I believe it's possible for us to recover realms of anointing, realms of insight, realms of God that have been untended for decades simply by choosing to reclaim them and perpetuate them for future generations.

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Now, in October, a year ago, Dr. Michael Brown asked Bill Johnson in an interview whether Bethel Church endorsed the practice or taught the practice of grave sucking.

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And Bill Johnson said that they did not. He denied the practice. But I tell you, this is a lie because there are there's plenty of photographic evidence of students from Bethel Church doing this because they're following the teaching of Bill Johnson.

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In fact, Bill Johnson's wife, Benny, has photographed herself doing this.

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This absolutely is a teaching from Bethel Church and the School of Supernatural Ministry.

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What is what is that the name of it? The Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Yeah. BSSM or whatever it is anyway.

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So this this is the mantle grabbing concept, which has otherwise become known as grave sucking.

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That's not what they call it. So when Michael Brown asked Bill Johnson about that, what

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Johnson was probably denying is the the way that this gets made fun of, not what it is that they actually do, because they really do this thing of of mantle grabbing.

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And this is where they get the concept from. This is how they justify it, because of this story of Elisha in Second Kings, Chapter 13.

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And with this dead body being thrown on top of him and suddenly as soon as it touches Elisha, hey, it springs right back to life.

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So clearly there's still kind of a spirit there with Elisha. There must be a spirit with other saints who have died and we can kind of grab their essence.

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But that's not the point of this story. There is actually a symbolic meaning here to the fact that Elisha's bone still had an ability to heal or revive a dead man.

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And here is what we're meant to understand. Just as this dead man was thrown on top of Elisha.

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So God was about to throw Israel into exile because of their sin, because of their worship of false gods, because of the abominations that they committed before God and were about to commit before God.

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There's still worse things that are coming up. So God was going to send them into exile. He was going to turn them over to their enemies.

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They ignored the words of the prophets of God. And so we're about to enter into a kind of death.

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But if they had any hope of being revived, they needed to listen to the words of God's prophets and turn from their sin and return to the true worship of the one living

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God. And then they would experience an unexpected resurrection.

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And so now translate that message now into the New Testament era, onto this side of the cross.

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And likewise, all human beings live in deadness because of their sins.

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We might be physically alive, but we're spiritually dead. And yet we can experience a resurrection by turning from our sin and following Jesus Christ, receiving his forgiveness, his grace and living in his righteousness.

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And then we likewise will be rescued out of the deadness that we were in because of our sin and given new life in Jesus Christ.

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So that's the point of this story in Second Kings 13, 20 and 21. It's not about mantle grabbing.

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It's not about grave sucking or any of those other kinds of things. This part of the story was deliberately inserted here so that the people of Israel would again listen to God's prophets and turn from their sin and believe and be restored, be resurrected.

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And so we must also turn from our sin, follow Christ, and we will receive a resurrection like his.

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Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you for the words that you have given to us in your scriptures.

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They are life to our bones. They give encouragement to our souls and our spirits.

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They are our hope and our joy. And so I pray that we go throughout our day in praise to our

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God because of the resurrection that we've been given in Christ, the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life with our

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Lord. And with the hope of this promise, we can enter into our day and whatever whatever situation or circumstance comes our way.

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We know that these things will not separate us from the promises of God, from the love that we have in Jesus Christ.

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We praise you and give you thanks for all that you have given to us, including this salvation in Jesus name.

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Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.