Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Tanya Wilmeth.

Do you remember playing the game of telephone as a kid?

One person whispers a sentence and by the time it gets to the end of the line, it's completely mangled. Sally bought a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone for herself and a strawberry one for

her grandma. Somehow turns into Sally's dog ate chocolate chips and threw up on her grandma.

I couldn't help but think of that game when I read today's passage in Second Kings 9,

because here the message gets passed down a line,

from God to Elisha, from Elisha to a young prophet, from the prophet to Jehu, and from Jehu to his

officers. And yet, unlike that game of telephone, the message doesn't get distorted,

it doesn't get lost. It comes through loud and clear, and it comes true. Why? Because every time it's

passed along, it's anchored in one phrase, thus says the Lord, or in modern day language, God said.

So here's this story. We're going to walk through what happened in 2 Kings chapter 9.

It begins with Elisha summoning one of the young prophets. And he says to him in verses 1 through 3,

tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Remoth-Gilion.

Now that whole phrase, tuck your cloak into your belt, it was like, make haste, hurry, there's no time to waste. And then he says, when you get there, look for Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nemchi.

Go to him, get him away from his companions, and take him into an inner room. Then you are to take

the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, this is what the Lord says. I anoint you,

King over Israel. Then open the door and run. Don't delay. Okay, so there's a lot of haste here.

There's going, there's finding a room with a man in it who's surrounded by his military personnel,

taking him out of the room, anointing him king, and then leaving very

quickly. Well, this is exactly what the young prophet did. He found Jehu, he pulled him into a room,

he poured the oil on his head, and he declared in verses six and seven, this is what the Lord,

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