GOD WARNS AND PROVIDES

2 Kings 8:1-2 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, "Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years." 2 The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

HE WARNS US WHEN TROUBLE IS COMING AND HE MAKES A WAY OF ESCAPE, BUT WE HAVE TO LISTEN AND OBEY--WE HAVE TO TAKE THAT WAY OF ESCAPE. 

This woman had served the Lord by serving the man of God. She provided a place of rest for him and had already reaped great reward for her service and the attitude of her heart. God had blessed her and given her and her husband a much wanted child. But that wasn’t the end of God’s provision for her. The man of God made sure that the family that had blessed him did not suffer. There was to be a famine in the land and he made sure that she was warned.

 And, she and her husband LISTENED to that warning. God will always take care of us; he will always direct us and lead us but, when He does, we have to hear and obey. Sometimes Believers have the attitude that nothing can happen to them because they are Christians, so they ignore all warnings and provisions for safety. That doesn’t work. If we ignore God’s warning and provision, we’ll suffer the consequences.

  8:3-6 At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. 4 The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, "Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done." 5 Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, "This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life." 6 The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.    Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, "Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now."

 At the end of the famine, the woman and her family returned and God set up the circumstances for her to receive back all her possessions and property. She lost nothing. Some times we don’t listen to warnings and take the path of escape that God provides because we’re afraid we’ll lose material things, but God will always restore, replace, or give us even better.

 If God is telling you to do something, do it. If He is making a way of escape from danger, take it…and TRUST HIM TO PROVIDE FOR YOU. He won’t let you down.