Prophet of Peace
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saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter
weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for
her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy
voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be
rewarded, ... and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall
come again to their own border.”
Jeremiah 31:15-17
.
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Jesus comforts our sorrow for the dead with a message of infinite
hope: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem
them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be
thy destruction.”
Hosea 13:14
. “I am He that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, ... and have the keys of hell and
of death.”
Revelation 1:18
. “The Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
1
Thessalonians 4:16, 17
.
Like the Saviour of mankind, of whom he was a type, Elisha in his
ministry among men combined the work of healing with that of teach-
ing. Faithfully, untiringly, throughout his long and effective labors,
Elisha endeavored to foster and advance the important educational
work carried on by the schools of the prophets. In the providence
of God his words of instruction to the earnest groups of young men
assembled were confirmed by the deep movings of the Holy Spirit, and
at times by other unmistakable evidences of his authority as a servant
of Jehovah.
It was on the occasion of one of his visits to the school established
at Gilgal that he healed the poisoned pottage. “There was a dearth in
the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he
said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the
sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs,
and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full,
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and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them
not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as
they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou
man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.
But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said,