Read for This Week's Study:
| Gen. 39:4–6; 2 Kings 4; 5; 8:1–6; Jer. 9:23, 24; John 13:1–17; 1 Tim. 6:10. |
Memory Text:
| “It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him”(Deuteronomy 13:4, NIV). |
| Gehazi was a servant. Not just any servant, but the servant of one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history: Elisha. Elisha had been called by the Lord to minister to the prophet Elijah, in preparation for Elisha’s own prophetic ministry (1 Kings 19:16). For many years Elisha served Elijah and listened, observed, and thus understood what it meant to be a prophet. When Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind of fire (2 Kings 2:11), Elisha’s time had come. His ministry was not as fiery and glamorous as Elijah’s, but he exerted a far-reaching influence. Thus, Gehazi had a wonderful opportunity to be closely associated with someone as blessed of God as Elisha. It’s hard to imagine all that he could have learned and seen in the years that he worked with the prophet. Yet, as we will see this week, despite so much potential and many great opportunities, Gehazi became a miserable failure. His story serves as an example of someone who gets sidetracked and becomes unable to distinguish the important from the peripheral. How crucial it is for us to learn from his mistakes! |
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