ROOM, ROOMS AND ROOMERS
Jack Davis
Psalm 80:7-11: “Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.” We marvel at our God, and at the way He brought Israel along and provided for her. He increased her and made room for her increase.
PROGRESSING AND PRODUCTIVE
As Isaac sojourned through the land that God had promised Abraham and his descendants, he found wells that his father had dug and the Philistines had stopped up, filling them with earth. Several Bible scholars agree this pictures the religious old creation at work to hinder the flow of spiritual blessings in Christian progress. As Isaac traveled it seems that with each stop he made, he dug a well and named it according to the related experience. The Philistines followed behind him and claimed the well belonged to them. They would stop it up. We eventually read of Isaac digging one well after another in the valley.
We today pass through valley experiences that give us grief, and it seems at times would overwhelm us. Yet, we must realize that as the Lord walks with us through those valleys, they are to become places of blessing and refreshing. Psalm 84:5-7, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength…”. Finally, the last well Isaac dug in the valley, when it may seem he had reached his lowest ebb, the enemy no longer strove for that well. It was from that point he began his ascent.
He named that well Rehoboth, making a very interesting and quite significant statement. Rehoboth means “roominess, enlargement or broad places.” He said, “For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land” – Genesis. 26:22. We rejoice to realize that the Lord has a special place in mind for that nation in the future. Our Lord has a special place prepared for us also. Now today as we open up unto Him, allowing room for His Spirit to flow in us, He makes room for more and more of Him, in us.
THE FURNISHED UPPER ROOM
In II Kings 4:8-37 we read of a hospitality room at the top, “a little chamber on the wall.” It was prepared for the prophet Elisha, by the great woman of Shunem and her husband. When Elisha passed their way on his ministering journey, they constrained him to eat with them. This woman persuaded her husband to furnish this room with a bed, a table, a stool and a candlestick. So they made a place of comfort for a weary traveler, where he could rest, read and be nourished and commune with God.
She had been so careful for the servant of God, so Elisha asked what could be done for her. Elisha’s servant found out that she was barren, and that her husband was old. Elisha promised her and her husband a son. The Lord rewarded them with a son and some years later the son died. She went and told the prophet after she carried the son up to that prepared room. Elisha came to Shunem and raised him to life there in the same room they had provided for the prophet.
Next issue: Make Room
