Pleasantly Situated, Fatally Flawed
Introduction: The Source of the Problem
We live in a world that is very good at describing its symptoms, but is utterly blind to the disease. Our culture is full of men who can tell you in exquisite detail that the water is bad and the land is barren. They write books, make films, and fill the airwaves with laments about our societal decay, our loss of meaning, and our rampant unfruitfulness. They can see that the situation is pleasant, that we have all this technology and wealth, but that something is fundamentally wrong at the source. The land miscarries. The water brings death.
They see the political corruption, the breakdown of the family, the confusion of identities, the bitterness and the strife. They see the barrenness. But their proposed solutions are always downstream. They want to filter the water in the buckets, not heal the spring. They want to pass a new law, start a new program, or elect a new kind of politician. They are like a man who is being poisoned by his well, and who decides the solution is to buy a new cup. The problem is not the cup; the problem is the source.
The story of Elisha at Jericho is a powerful diagnostic tool for our own time. Jericho was a city under a curse, a curse pronounced by Joshua centuries before (Josh. 6:26). When Hiel of Bethel rebuilt it in the days of Ahab, he paid the price Joshua foretold, losing his oldest and youngest sons (1 Kings 16:34). The city was pleasantly situated, a prime piece of real estate, but its water was poison. It was a picture of a world that looks good on the outside but is rotten at the core. It is a picture of every human heart apart from grace. It is a picture of every society that builds on a foundation other than Jesus Christ.
This miracle is not just a quaint story about a prophet fixing a city's plumbing. It is a paradigm for divine healing. It teaches us that God does not tinker with the symptoms; He goes directly to the source. And what He uses to bring healing appears foolish to the world, but it is the very power and wisdom of God.
The Text
Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the habitat of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.”
And he said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
And he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or barrenness any longer.’ ”
So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
(2 Kings 2:19-22 LSB)
The Honest Diagnosis (v. 19)
The story begins with a moment of commendable honesty from the leaders of Jericho.
"Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold now, the habitat of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.”" (2 Kings 2:19)
These men have eyes to see. They are not postmoderns, trying to convince themselves that bad water is just a different kind of good. They are not relativists, arguing that "unfruitful" is a social construct. They see the reality of their situation. The location is good, the potential is there, but the source of life for the city is a source of death. The word for "unfruitful" here can also mean "miscarrying." The land could not bring anything to term. It was a place of death and failure.
This is the first step toward any kind of healing: an honest confession of the problem. They do not pretend things are fine. They see the curse at work. And, importantly, they go to the right person for help. They do not form a committee or hire a consultant from Egypt. They go to the prophet of God. Elisha has just inherited a double portion of Elijah's spirit, and the sons of the prophets at Jericho have already acknowledged that the Spirit of Yahweh rests on him (2 Kings 2:15). They rightly see that a spiritual problem requires a spiritual solution.
This is where our generation fails so spectacularly. We see the bad water, the miscarrying land, but we refuse to go to the prophet of God. We refuse to consult the Word of God. Instead, we turn to the very philosophies and ideologies that poisoned the water in the first place and ask them for a cure. We ask the godless to fix the consequences of godlessness. It is madness.
The Foolish Prescription (v. 20)
Elisha's response must have seemed bizarre. It was certainly not a solution any civil engineer would have proposed.
"And he said, “Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him." (2 Kings 2:20)
Notice the instruments of salvation. A new jar and some salt. From a human perspective, this is absurd. Throwing salt into a freshwater spring should make it worse, not better. It should make it more barren, not less. This is the foolishness of God that is wiser than men (1 Cor. 1:25). God consistently chooses humble, unlikely means to accomplish His purposes so that no flesh can boast in His presence.
Why a new jar? A new vessel signifies a new work. It is set apart, unused for any common purpose. God's healing is not a patch-up job. He does not pour new wine into old wineskins. When God redeems, He makes things new. The vessel for this healing work had to be clean, consecrated for this one divine purpose. This points forward to the work of Christ, who brings a new covenant, creating a new humanity in His own body, a vessel holy and set apart.
And why salt? Salt in the Old Testament is a powerful symbol. It is an agent of preservation, retarding decay. But more importantly, it is a symbol of the covenant. Every sacrifice was to be offered with salt, the "salt of the covenant of your God" (Lev. 2:13). A covenant of salt was an unbreakable, enduring covenant (Num. 18:19). Elisha is not performing a magic trick. He is acting out a covenant lawsuit in reverse. The curse on Jericho was a covenantal curse for disobedience. The healing will come through the application of a covenantal symbol, a sign of God's enduring faithfulness and purifying power.
The Authoritative Declaration (v. 21)
Elisha takes these humble elements and goes directly to the heart of the problem.
"And he went out to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘I have purified these waters; there shall not be from there death or barrenness any longer.’ ”" (2 Kings 2:21)
He does not treat the contaminated streams or the barren fields. He goes to the spring, the source. All true reformation begins at the source. For a society, this means returning to the Word of God as the wellspring of life. For an individual, it means dealing with the heart, for out of it flow the springs of life (Prov. 4:23). Our problem is not ultimately our behavior; it is our corrupt hearts. And only God can heal the source.
The salt in the new jar has no inherent power. The power is in the word of the prophet. Elisha makes it clear who is doing the work: "Thus says Yahweh." Elisha is merely the agent. The jar and the salt are the instruments. But the power and authority belong to God alone. God speaks, and reality reorders itself to conform to His word. He says, "I have purified these waters." It is a done deal. The result is immediate and decisive: no more death, no more barrenness.
This is the power of the preached gospel. The minister of the Word comes with the salt of the covenant, the truth of Scripture, contained in the new vessel of a life consecrated to God. He goes to the poisoned spring of the human heart and casts in the salt of the law and the gospel. And he declares, "Thus says the Lord, 'I have healed you in Christ. There shall be no more death or barrenness.'" The power is not in the preacher's eloquence or the cleverness of his jar; the power is in the authoritative Word of God, which accomplishes that for which it is sent.
The Enduring Result (v. 22)
The final verse testifies to the permanence of God's healing work.
"So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke." (2 Kings 2:22)
This was not a temporary fix. It was a lasting, generational transformation. The healing endured. When God heals a soul, He does not just put a bandage on it. He gives it a new heart. He does not just reform the sinner; He regenerates him. The work of God is a permanent work. The spring that Elisha purified, known today as the Sultan's Spring, still flows with sweet water. It is a lasting testimony to the power of God's word.
And the text gives the reason for this permanence: it was "according to the word of Elisha which he spoke." The foundation of the new reality in Jericho was not the salt, not the jar, but the sure word of God. Our confidence, our assurance, and the entire foundation of our Christian lives rests on this same principle. We are saved, kept, and glorified "according to the word" of the Lord. His promises are the bedrock of our reality. If He has said, "I have purified you," then you are pure. If He has said, "There will be no more death," then death has lost its sting.
The Gospel in the Spring
This entire account is a beautiful illustration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We, like Jericho, are pleasantly situated in God's creation, but because of the curse of sin, our water is bad. The very spring of our humanity, the human heart, is poisoned. It is a fountain of death that produces only barrenness (Rom. 3:10-18). We are under a curse, and everything we do is tainted by it.
Into this cursed situation, God sends His Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is greater than Elisha. And what are the instruments of our healing? A new vessel and the salt of the covenant. Jesus is the new vessel, the sinless man, the holy and pure jar, set apart for the work of redemption. And He brings the salt of the New Covenant, a covenant of grace sealed in His own blood. He is the fulfillment of all the covenant promises.
And where does He apply the cure? He goes to the source. On the cross, He dealt with the root of the curse of sin itself. He did not just come to teach us how to behave better. He came to give us a new source, a new heart. He casts the purifying salt of His finished work into the spring of our lives.
And He speaks the authoritative word: "It is finished." "I have healed you." By His stripes, we are healed. And for all who are in Him, there shall be no more ultimate death or spiritual barrenness. He gives us living water, a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). And this healing is permanent, "to this day" and into eternity, all according to His unbreakable Word.
Therefore, if your life is pleasantly situated on the outside, but you know the water is bad, if you see the barrenness in your heart, your family, or your nation, do not run to downstream solutions. Do not trust in a new political cup. You must go to the source. You must go to the Prophet, Jesus Christ, and plead with Him to cast the salt of His covenant grace into the spring of your life. For He alone is the one who says, "Thus says the Lord, I have healed these waters."