03 July 2022
[The Power of the Word 말씀의 능력]
열왕기하 2 Kings 2: 23-25 Hymn 찬송가 354

열왕기하 2:
23 엘리사가 거기서 벧엘로 올라가더니 그가 길에서 올라갈 때에 작은 아이들이 성읍에서 나와 그를 조롱하여 이르되 대머리여 올라가라 대머리여 올라가라 하는지라
24엘리사가 뒤로 돌이켜 그들을 보고 여호와의 이름으로 저주하매 곧 수풀에서 암곰 둘이 나와서 아이들 중의 사십이 명을 찢었더라
25 엘리사가 거기서부터 갈멜 산으로 가고 거기서 사마리아로 돌아왔더라

2 Kings 2:
23 He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”
24 And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.
25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. (ESV)

[The Power of the Word 말씀의 능력]

C. S. Lewis once had met a sort of trap in which faith could not be verified by our reason.
All the heroes of the Bible have evidences on their belief when they practiced their faith by God’s word in the Old Testament or using Jesus’ name in the New Testament.
Simply speaking we have Jesus as God’s word in our mind mystically. We believe also God can do anything. God is omnipotent.

We cannot verify the power of the word before we apply it to this world.

One of the examples on applying God’s word presents in the story of mocked Elisha.

Elisha was mocked by boisterous mobs ‘Go up, you baldhead!’ (23)
‘Go up’ Hebrew of עָלָה, the same sound and meaning of Korean 올라had been compared with Elijah who disappeared, ‘go up’ by a whirlwind.
And ‘baldhead’ Elisha was compared with hairy Elijah.

These juvenile kids were mocking Elisha ‘You are not like the legend prophet Elijah; you are just a powerless shabby pastor!
Our war in faith is nothing but mocking to myself or by other, ‘you are not like Jesus so you do not have God’s word.’ ‘If you have God’s word then verify it.’

In 24, Elisha was verifying God’s word in the name of the LORD.
He had God’s word when he cursed them. That word was in Leviticus 26: 22 and Deuteronomy. 1)
Also the Christian doesn’t have to curse others because Jesus already did for us. (John 3: 18)

We can verify the power of God’s word when we apply it to our own situations.
Guhyun Woo
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1) Dale Ralph Davis, 2 Kings, the power and the fury (Ross- shire: Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 2005), p. 39.

#강해설교열왕기하 #한영예배 #다문화가정예배