dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we gather together and turn in God's holy word to 2 Kings chapter 2, we recognize that Elijah has been taken away from Elisha and as he goes up in whirlwind and the mantle of Elijah falls upon Elisha. Now mantle is the word of God and he's granted his word and his spirit and he's in a certain sense brought into to carry on this prophetic office of Elijah. And as he returns to Jericho, we recognize that that's given evidence as he parts the waters with that mantle, and he goes across the Jordan and comes into Jericho, all witnessed by the inhabitants of Jericho. And they want to go and look for Elijah. And Elisha says, no, no, don't bother going and looking for Elijah. The Lord has taken him. And yet they go in search after persisting in saying, we just need to go. And they come back and Elisha says, told you so. You should have just listened. The Word of God is true. This had an impact on Jericho. Let's hear what happens then in Jericho as we turn to verse 19. And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth. But the water is not, and the ground barren. And he said, bring me a new cruise, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from thence any more death. or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke. What's important to understand as we look at this narrative here in the first miracle of Elisha is who is Elisha as a successor to Elijah? Well we recognize that both were prophets and as prophets were the mouthpiece of God and types of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Word made flesh. And in a certain way, both as types of Christ, still differed in various ways. And in a certain sense, many compare the ministry of Elijah to that of John the Baptist, preparing the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Elisha, as an express image, as it were, almost of Christ, even his name, the Lord Salvation, who says Jesus means Jehovah, salvation. But also even in his work, which were noted by the many miracles that were wrought by God through the hand of Elisha. And this contrast could even be set between the two public miracles of both Elijah and Elisha. Elijah comes on the scene in 1 Kings 17, suddenly and abruptly into the courts of Ahab and declares, as the Lord lives before whom I stand, there shall be no dew or rain for these next years. Well, Elisha comes onto the scene in his first miracle. instead of pronouncing a curse, reverses a curse. The cursed waters of Jericho are healed. Both include water, but one, the contrast of a curse because of God's judgment of sin, and the other, a turning of God's judgment of sin into healing, salvation. It's noteworthy to consider the time also in which these prophets lived in the time of Ahab and Jezebel and the promotion of Baal worship that came through that. Baal worship had to do with Baal who was seen as the divinity of creation and of fertility and fruitfulness on the land. And yet, Baal stood no chance. In the days of Elijah, as you know, when they went to Mount Carmel. As you know, the Baal couldn't reverse the drought. As you know, Baal and Baal worship couldn't reverse the curse on the springs of Jericho. But now, after Ahab and Ahaziah, comes Jehoram the king, a new king in Israel. And he had put away some of those sacred pillars of Baal, as you find in 2 Kings 2. And yet, he persisted in idolatry. There was some reform, but not full reform. And yet, through God's judgment here, he's revealing his glorious salvation. that as we understand the curse of sin and the repentance that comes by God and from God and faith also, that God makes His way for His gracious salvation that's so evident here in this passage. with the waters of Jericho being healed. That's what I'd like to title this message, The Waters of Jericho Healed. And we're going to see that, first of all, it's the city that's cursed by God. And secondly, a city healed by God. First of all, then, a city cursed by God. And the man of the city said to Elijah, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant. Well, it doesn't sound like they're under a curse. The situation of the city is pleasant. But then you read on. As my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground barren. It may appear pleasant and prosperous on the outside, but there's nothing pleasant about it. Jericho is under a curse. It's under a curse. And Jericho is under this curse because of the divine judgment of God. We read in Joshua chapter 6 that Joshua charged them at that time saying, you know, cursed be the man before the Lord who rises and rebuilds the city of Jericho. Children, you know what happened to Jericho, don't you? You remember it from Sunday school. Or you remember it from Vacation Bible School. Or wherever you heard of the walls of Jericho come tumbling down at the hand of Joshua and the Israelites. And thereafter, God declares victory and opens the land of Israel and the cities of Canaan to the Israelites. Jericho is never to be rebuilt again. and cursed be those who would try to rebuild it. What do we find in 1 Kings 16 when Ahab made a wooden image we read and he He did more to provoke the Lord God to anger than all of the kings of Israel before him. And in his days, we read in verse 34, Bethel built Jericho. And he laid its foundations with Abiram, his first son, firstborn, and his youngest son, Sejab. He set his gates. In other words, he He buried His firstborn son in the foundations. And when the gates of the city were going up, He buried His second, His youngest son, according to the Word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua. Jericho is under a curse. And not only were those who rebuilt this city of Jericho under the curse, but now all of the inhabitants of Jericho are under this curse. It's under this curse. The water is not. The ground is barren. And what this means, the water is not, it doesn't mean there was an absence of water. There was water. The problem was the water was bad. It was disgusting. Even though everything appeared well on the outside of the city, the water in the city, the foundation of this city, the fountain of this city was bad. It didn't have any value. That's what the word not means. Maybe even more than that, it had evil in it. It was a cause of their affliction. The ground was barren. That means the land was barren. And all that would grow off the land was barren. The trees, the livestock, the fruit of the land, it was all fruitless. The fruit would begin to appear on the trees in the spring and in the summer. And soon they would abort and curl up and it would end up being fruitless. The livestock would become impregnated and they would miscarry their lambs and their calves. And the woman would become pregnant and they would lose their children through miscarriage. Oh, what barrenness. What bereavement. That's the picture you receive in Ezekiel 36 that's almost like a parallel. My people, you will be bereaved of your children. That's that same word that's used here in this barrenness. Oh, many, many of us understand the reality of the challenges of life when there's crop failures. and the fruit is on the trees and it withers up. And how painful that can be in a year. Some also understand the pain and the sorrows associated with miscarriages. My wife and I during our seminary years had four miscarriages and I can empathize with you. But what we recognize when we see all of these afflictions, they are a consequence of sin. Not necessarily always like Jericho, which was a direct result of a sin of rebuilding this city. But sometimes just in general, sometimes even the righteous suffer under the consequences of sin like Job. Either way, whether it's a direct or indirect result of sin, all of these consequences of sin are laid upon us to cause us to cry out to God. just as those who were in Jericho. At this time, they cry out to God. It's as if then they now cry out to God. Why are they crying out to God? Yes, because of this situation in the city, for sure. But they have just witnessed Elisha coming across the Jordan and the waters parting. Elisha walking across that Jordan. What a picture for Jericho. who would have witnessed the same thing before their walls came tumbling down. And now this man of God comes back into their city. And they went and searched for Elijah for three days and they didn't find him. And they believe the Word of God. They believe indeed that the mantle has fallen on Elisha. And Elisha is the prophet of God, the Word of God among them. So where else would we go with our problem but to the Lord through His prophet Elisha? They were coming to the right person. We're receiving this prophet as we find in Matthew chapter 10. And he who receives me receives him who sent me, says Jesus. And he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. That's what's happening in Jericho. Under this curse, they're receiving the Word of God, the prophet of the Lord in their midst, and they receive him and receive also a prophet's reward. They come to Him in the right way. They come to Him acknowledging that the city looks good on the outside. We make it look good. We do what we can to live pleasantly. But it's rotten to the core. And they humbly acknowledge that their fountain was polluted. It's evil. It's the cause of all kinds of afflictions. And they plead with Him and says, behold this, and please, please help us. What a humble confession and repentance and cry for help. It's evident here in our text. As we think of this city Jericho under the curse, what a parallel that is to our own lives. as we too lie under the curse of sin and continue even in that sin of being offensive to God in so many ways. Oh, do we understand the offensiveness of sin against our holy God? Or do we just want to ignore the problem? Do we see the consequences of sin in our life? Or do we just want to cover up the problem? Do we want to paint a nice picture of our lives and make it look like we got it all together? If I look at your Facebook accounts, does your family look like you just have it all together and everything's going well in your life? As you sit in church today, and I thank the Lord that you're all sitting nicely, and your children are sitting nicely, and you're all dressed respectfully, and you gather to worship God, and you've acknowledged this is what we're doing, and so we're going to paint a good picture. We're going to put on our Sunday baths. Not a bad thing to do. I'm not suggesting to do anything different. But the question is this, do we realize underneath our nice clothing, behind our painted pictures of our life, that we are rotten to the core by nature? That our hearts are a fountain of iniquity. That the fountain of our heart by nature is nothing but polluted with sin, deserving all the consequences of sin, even death. itself. Do we really understand the curse in which we lie by nature? Do we acknowledge that before God? Do we come to the right person? Not necessarily Elisha as the inhabitants of Jericho did, but do we go to the greater than Elisha? Do we go to the One who can heal us and deliver us from the consequences of sin? Do we go to the Lord Jesus Christ, in other words? He's the right person. And do we go to Him in the right way? Crucifying our pride. Saying, Lord, I know it all seems pleasant and I make it all look good on the outside, but You know my heart, O Lord, You know my sinfulness. You know my spiritual lethargy. You know my darkness. Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Do we just simply acknowledge we're a mess? Yes, before God, but maybe even sometimes to others. Talking to your spouse about what really lies in your heart. Being able to share and to say, I need your prayers, I need your help. Talking to your elders what really lies in your hearts. And working through that. And seeking to live out of Christ. Always being directed to Him for forgiveness and salvation. But to live out of Him. To crucify our old nature. And to be delivered from the mess of our own makings. Isn't it liberating to come to that kind of place? Maybe you're just burdened with the rottenness and the brokenness of your life and you know what it's causing in your life and you just want to be delivered from it and liberated from it. What liberty there is when we can know the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. What liberation there was for Jericho here in our text. Not only was the city a city under the curse of God, it was a city that's healed by God. It's healed by God. Elisha said in verse 20, Bring me a new cruise. Put salt therein. And they brought it to him. He went forth unto the spring of waters and cast the salt in there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. And the waters were healed. First of all, God's instrument of healing is Elisha. Elisha. What's noteworthy here in our text is really what's not said. Because what's not said indicates that Elisha is a man of compassion. The compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because... You know, Elisha, in this passage just before, he's come across the Jordan and said, go look for Elijah. And then they go and do so after they persuade him to allow him to go. And when they come back, he says, didn't I tell you so? You didn't believe me. Couldn't have Elisha said here in our text, you know what God commanded in Joshua chapter 6. You know that these walls of the city should have never been rebuilt. And now you're experiencing this curse because of your sinfulness and your wretchedness. Oh, and now you want me to have mercy on you? I could have told you, you shouldn't have built this city. Isn't that what he could have said? It's not what he said, though. Didn't say anything about that. What did he say? Go and bring me a new cruise. He had compassion on them. Just as our Lord has compassion, has moved with compassion, when he hears the pain and he hears the sorrow, and he sees the brokenness, even weeping over Jerusalem, who were going to kill him. A heart of compassion is evident here in Elisha. And God is going to use him as an instrument of healing and salvation. But he also uses other instruments here. Bring this new cruise, this new bowl. He wanted to have a new bowl so he could put salt in it. And to bring this salt and this bowl to him and then he was going to cast it into the water. These instruments are also God's instruments of healing. Not that these instruments themselves did anything, or accomplished anything, but it was what they pointed to. Anyone who wants to think, why did He bring this new cruiser, this new bowl, this new container? Why did He want to have something new? You can understand why they needed a bowl or something, because there needed to be salt in it. It's hard to carry salt and grains of salt without a bowl, without some kind of container. But why a new one? And why salt? Well, both of them are pointing us to the purity that they signify. It needed to be new that it would be pure. It would be holy, set apart for this purpose. Because after all, if they took an old bowl and put salt in an old bowl, you know how the Israelites were commanded that impure things can defile pure things, and pure things can also pass on this purity. And so the problem here is, if they would have carried something else in this bowl, and then carried the salt in this bowl and put the salt in the water, that may have been filled with superstition. Well, it was what was in the bowl before that had an effect on the salt. So that was a combination of healing the water. But no, God says, no, I want a new bowl. So no one can say there's anything superstitious about this. There's any other reason for the healing. This is a brand new bowl showing the purity of it and showing the purity of the salt. Salt is used in our culture to add flavor to food. But it's also used in specifically pictured in Scripture as being purifying. You know what happens when you get salt in a cut or a wound. It cleans it. It purifies it. There's a cleansing power to it. And so the picture of these two instruments is that God has holy instruments set apart for His work and to show His salvation. That's what's being pictured here. But there's something that's even deeper embedded here in this symbol of salt. Because salt in the Old Testament had several passages, I think of Numbers chapter 18 and Leviticus 2 and 2 Chronicles 13, all speak of what's called a covenant of salt. a covenant of salt. Leviticus 2 verse 13 we read that every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. Even their offerings were to be offered with salt, and this was the salt of the covenant. It's a holy covenant. It's a set-apart covenant, and it has to be sprinkled with salt. It says the same in Numbers chapter 18, your heave offerings as well, your holy things. Offer to the Lord with salt. This ordinance of salt is an ordinance forever, he says. This covenant of salt is an ordinance forever. And so what do we say? What God is doing here in Jericho, a city that should have never been built, inhabitants who were covenant children of God have now inhabited the city of Jericho that was to be under the curse of God. And they're experiencing the covenant judgment of God But God comes in His mercy and in His grace with this covenant of salt. He says, I will make a covenant with you. I will restore my covenant with you, my people. Even in Jericho, Jericho sinners completely defied my word and my covenant. But because of your humility and your plea for help, I will renew and restore My covenant with you." What a beautiful picture. And so they bring it to Him. This salt in this bowl. I don't know how much they understood about the significance of this new cruise, of the salt, and of the covenant to salt. I don't even know how much they understood of this. Maybe I don't even understand it to the depths of what is being conveyed here. One thing I know is these inhabitants of Jericho believed the word of the prophet Elisha, the word of God. They believed it. Elisha commands them to do something like this, and they simply go and do it. Wouldn't have you had a lot of questions? You want me to go and get a new bowl and salt? What are you going to do with that? You know, we've had the prophets of Baal here, and they tried all their voodoo on this spring. Nothing worked, Elisha. Why do you think salt is going to do anything more than what they tried to do? Wouldn't any of you had questions like Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 6? You know, and Elisha told him, go dip in the Jordan seven times and you shall be clean? And in his mind immediately he's like, why couldn't I have done that back in Samaria? In the rivers that are around Damascus? They're actually cleaner, better rivers and better waters. I could have become more clean there. Why would I go to the Jordan? Why didn't the Prophet just come out and do some magic over me and heal me of my leprosy? And he left the presence of Elisha furious, we read. Wouldn't you have that same kind of thought even as the inhabitants of Jericho? But they didn't. They had the thought. We believe this word. And they went and got the cruz and got the salt and brought it to the man of God. It was instant, unquestioning faith and obedience demonstrating this is God-given faith to them. They believed the word of the prophet and the means that God had given them. And they were believing God's covenant promises. Isn't that how God's salvation is extolled? Because it wasn't Elisha that healed the waters. It wasn't the salt that ultimately healed the waters. It wasn't even the bowl that had anything to do with healing these waters. It was God who healed these waters. Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. Elisha threw that salt in and God says, I have healed these waters. It's God's healing. It's not about what these instruments were doing and communicating. It's about God who's healing. He's doing something that Baal could never do. He's doing something that all of the idols they were worshiping could never do. He was doing something that all the magic and voodoo of this world could never do. It was God who was healing. And it was a complete healing. He says, there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. None whatsoever. He's taken away this curse. And we see that complete healing Revealed as a permanent healing in verse 22. So the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of Elisha which he spoke You see at the end of the day when God's work is done God's way By God's Word it receives God's blessing When God's work is done God's way by God's Word it receives his blessing and But isn't that just as true today? When we look at God's way and God's word for salvation, and we know it's the power of God, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us that we indeed are under the curse. We lie in the midst of death, the curse of God. It reminds us that we're born in sin and iniquity. We're children of disobedience. There's none of us who do good, no, not one. We are sold in sin under the power of death. That's what God's Word reveals to us. To you and to me. And He brings His glorious Gospel, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who has come to satisfy the wrath of God against sin and to merit everlasting life through His righteousness. and calls us to salvation in Him. We say, Lord, help my unbelief. And so the Lord puts us in this vice of who we are by nature and who we're called to be. And He puts us in this vice that we would cry out for mercy and grace from our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Lord does with the Gospel. who are dead in sins and trespasses, who could never make ourselves alive. But as we cry out and we look to the One who is provided, who gives life, we look to the One who has compassion on sinners. We look at the One who remembers His covenant. We look to the One who is the mediator of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His own blood and testified of it on the cross of Calvary when He said, it is finished. I've completed the work that my Father has given me to do. I have fully satisfied the wrath of God. And I'm providing a suitable and complete salvation. Oh yes, it comes through my perfect work on the cross, but also my perfect obedience. It comes to offer a perfect salvation. That's the preaching of the Gospel. That's the means that God uses. It's not only a perfect salvation. It's a permanent salvation. Yes, we still experience the brokenness and the consequences of sin in this life. But we look forward to that life of permanent salvation where there will be no more death and no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain, no more crying, but eternal, eternally delivered from the body of this death. Oh, what a Savior. Do you know Him? The Lord Jesus Christ. How many times have you heard this Gospel? The means of God for salvation. Jericho, the inhabitants of Jericho heard the word of the Lord. They believed it. They did it and were healed. This is a city that should have never experienced the blessing of God and the mercy of God and the grace of God. If you think about it from a human perspective. But God, who is rich in mercy, healed the waters of Jericho. This afternoon we hope to look a little further in this passage, not to Jericho, but to Bethel, a place once blessed by God and His covenant people, even Jacob, receiving visions from God. God was in this place and yet rejected His Word. And the children were mocking with that Word. And all I'll say for now is beware of the bears. But this morning, as the warning sign is also already out there, beware of the bears. I want to hold up the banner of our Lord Jesus Christ high for sinners who have nowhere else to go and who simply cry, please, Lord, please, Lord, give me Jesus, else I die. He is a ready, available, suitable Savior for all who come to Him. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, what a Savior. And what great sinners we are. We cry, O Lord, please help us. Please deliver us from ourself, from our sin, from the consequences of sin. Redeem us unto yourself. And go with us in the rest of this day. that we would leave this place, even as a publican in the back of the temple, smiting on his breasts, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, that we would leave this place rejoicing, going to our homes justified, made right with you. Oh, look on us in mercy. And work mightily by the power of your Holy Spirit in our lives. granting us faith and repentance, granting us all that You promised to give to save Your people. We cry unto Thee, O Lord, please do it for Your great name's sake. For we pray it in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.