Introduction
Are you letting your faith be mostly “pleasant land”, good-looking on the outside, while something inside stays contaminated and unfruitful? The central lesson I want to press into your heart is this: God does not merely polish our exterior; He heals the inner spring by His word and Spirit so living water can flow out of us in real fruitfulness.
We’ve been tracing the story of Elijah and Elisha, and it brings us to a moment of transition and a first miracle that quietly preaches the gospel to us.
Main Points
Are you letting your faith be mostly “pleasant land”, good-looking on the outside, while something inside stays contaminated and unfruitful? The central lesson I want to press into your heart is this: God does not merely polish our exterior; He heals the inner spring by His word and Spirit so living water can flow out of us in real fruitfulness.
We’ve been tracing the story of Elijah and Elisha, and it brings us to a moment of transition and a first miracle that quietly preaches the gospel to us.
The Mantle Passes With Power
Elijah’s public ministry had a high point at Mount Carmel, calling out King Ahab, confronting the prophets of Baal, and seeing fire fall from heaven. But now the story moves to the end of Elijah’s partnership with Elisha.
At Jericho, Elijah is taken up in the whirlwind as the chariots of fire appear. Before they part, Elijah tells Elisha to ask what he wants. Elisha asks for a double portion, an inheritance of prophetic ministry. Elijah answers that if Elisha stays with him to the end and sees him taken up, it will be granted, and it is.
This matters for discipleship: God’s work continues through faithful servants, and the next generation must not only admire yesterday’s miracles, they must receive God’s power for today’s obedience.
Don’t Waste Time Searching Backward
After Elijah is taken, fifty men from the company (school) of prophets urge Elisha to let them search for Elijah, assuming he must be somewhere in the hills. Elisha tells them not to go, Elijah is not there. They keep pressing until Elisha finally allows it, and they search three days and find nothing. Elisha essentially says, “That’s why I told you not to go.”
There’s a gentle rebuke here: sometimes we cling to what God has already moved past. We can spend energy trying to recover what’s gone instead of submitting to what God is doing now. Discipleship means learning to recognize when the Lord has clearly spoken and acted, and then walking forward in faith.
Pleasant Land, Contaminated Spring
Now Elisha is “the guy,” and the people of Jericho come with a problem (2 Kings 2:19–22). They say the town is well situated, pleasant land, good location, everything looks right, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive/barren.
That contrast is piercing: everything can look ideal and still produce nothing. It’s true for places, communities, and individual lives. You can have the appearance of being set up for spiritual success, good environment, good knowledge, good experiences, and yet find no real fruit because something at the source is polluted.
I want you to ask honestly: where does your life look “well situated,” yet remain unproductive? Where do you have appearance without spiritual yield?
God Heals The Source, Not The Surface
Elisha responds in a surprising, counter-intuitive way: “Bring me a new bowl… put salt in it.” He goes to the spring and throws the salt in, declaring, “This is what the LORD says: I have healed this water” (2 Kings 2:20–21). Then the text says the water remained pure to this day according to the word spoken.
Salt in water doesn’t sound like a normal solution. That’s part of the point: the healing is not human technique; it is the Lord’s word and power applied to the source.
Discipleship often fails when we only manage symptoms, trying to look better, act nicer, appear stronger, without bringing God to the spring of the heart. Jesus did not come to produce a religion of surface cleanliness; He came to make people new from the inside out.
Jesus Confronts “Whitewashed” Religion
Being in the land of biblical monuments can awaken a sobering realization: a place can be saturated with holy history and still be deeply polluted in the present. It’s not a political statement; it’s simply a spiritual reality. Humans can live among sacred reminders and still argue, divide, harden, and hate.
That’s exactly what Jesus confronted. He rebuked the obsession with cleaning the outside, like the Pharisees’ fixation on externals, and called it what it is: “whitewashed tombs”, pleasant outwardly, but rotten within (see Matthew 23:27).
And when Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, He repeatedly pushes us away from public religious performance toward hidden sincerity: don’t do your religious deeds to be seen; when you pray, go to the secret place (see Matthew 6:1–6). He aims straight at the heart, the inner spring.
So I’m discipling you here: don’t settle for looking faithful. Ask the Lord to heal what no one else sees.
Living Water Comes From Within
The miracle at Jericho points beyond itself. Jesus fulfills the deeper promise:
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me… rivers of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37–38)
John explains Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, whom believers would later receive (John 7:39).
This is the gospel-shaped connection: we don’t just need better surroundings, better visuals, better memories, or better religious habits. We need Jesus to cleanse the source and give the Spirit, so living water flows from within.
Just as the land couldn’t become fruitful until the spring was healed, you and I cannot bear lasting fruit until God renews the inward person by the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Jericho teaches us to stop being impressed with “pleasant land” Christianity, good appearance, good setup, good language, while ignoring contaminated water at the source. God’s answer is not superficial improvement but inward healing: the Lord speaks, the Lord cleanses, the Lord makes fruitful.
So I’m calling you to a simple, deep response: come to Jesus thirsty, ask Him to heal the spring of your heart, and depend on the Holy Spirit for living water that produces real fruit.
Lord Jesus, I come to You thirsty. I confess that I can look “well situated” on the outside while still being unproductive within. Forgive me for settling for appearance, for chasing the approval of people, and for neglecting the secret place of the heart.
By Your word and mercy, heal the spring inside me. Wash what is contaminated, restore what is barren, and make my life fruitful. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You promised, so rivers of living water would flow from within me, love for neighbor, love for enemy, purity in secret, and obedience in daily life.
Do in me what I cannot do from the outside in. Make me beautiful from the inside out, for Your glory. Amen.
Conclusion
Jericho teaches us to stop being impressed with “pleasant land” Christianity, good appearance, good setup, good language, while ignoring contaminated water at the source. God’s answer is not superficial improvement but inward healing: the Lord speaks, the Lord cleanses, the Lord makes fruitful.
So I’m calling you to a simple, deep response: come to Jesus thirsty, ask Him to heal the spring of your heart, and depend on the Holy Spirit for living water that produces real fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, I come to You thirsty. I confess that I can look “well situated” on the outside while still being unproductive within. Forgive me for settling for appearance, for chasing the approval of people, and for neglecting the secret place of the heart.
By Your word and mercy, heal the spring inside me. Wash what is contaminated, restore what is barren, and make my life fruitful. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You promised, so rivers of living water would flow from within me, love for neighbor, love for enemy, purity in secret, and obedience in daily life.
Do in me what I cannot do from the outside in. Make me beautiful from the inside out, for Your glory. Amen.