Oct 4 2020 - 2 Kings 7 - God Provides! We Proclaim!

Welcome this morning – we’re glad you’re here – even if you knew that Mike was going to be out of town this morning!

Do you know what pork bellies are? Pork belly futures? For 50 years, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, they traded pork bellies – well, not the pork bellies exactly, but they traded futures for them. So trust me, this is going to come up later. I just wanted to make sure

Mike has been going through the books of Kings – describing how God was working and using the prophets to try to bring about justice and faithfulness in His people - and deconstructing the stories behind the idols we set up in our own lives. Mike just finished 1 Kings – and I’m going to continue down this path, but I’m jumping a little ahead (Mike will catch us up on what happened ‘in the meantime’) – The prophet Elijah had passed his prophetic abilities to his successor – Elisha –

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. Regardless of what I say this morning, Your word will not come back empty or void – it will accomplish Your desires in our lives. So I ask that You would work, that You would speak to our hearts – that You would give us wisdom to how You are working that we would join You in that work, and that You would use us, in whatever way You see fit to meet the needs in the lives of others. So Lord, we trust You to meet our needs and thank You for Your great love. We do lift up to You – I’m reminded how Governor Dewine has called for a day of prayer – for our president, and all those who have COVID – that You be a healing God and would turn hearts toward You. We ask that You would defeat this enemy that has entered our camp, that we would turn our hearts to You – we know that You have used plagues in the past, and I am NOT saying that this is a plague from You as a judgment on mankind, but we do know that You have used them to turn the hearts of people back to You – so we ask that You would use that to do that. We pray these things in Jesus’ name.

Elisha, as prophets tend to do, was not making friends with the kings of Syria OR the king of Israel. In this case, the king of Israel is Jehoram, or Joram, who is the son of Ahab and Jezebel, but he is so disregarded that they rarely mention him by name and only refer to him as ‘the king of Israel.’ At this time, the kingdom of Israel is split in two, with Judah being headquartered in the South in Jerusalem, while Israel’s main city is Samaria in the North. This story takes place in Samaria:

2 Kings 6

24 King Ben Hadad of Syria assembled his entire army and attacked and besieged Samaria. 25 Samaria’s food supply ran out. They laid siege to it so long that a donkey’s head was selling for eighty shekels of silver and a quarter of a kab (I’m not sure how big a kab is!) of dove’s droppings for five shekels of silver. (Now don’t be too concerned, dove’s droppings could be translated as ‘seed pods’ as the NIV has it).

This was a common tactic – to surround a walled city until all their provisions ran out and then they would either surrender or be so famished that they could easily be attacked. Or you would find people trying to escape the city and then the gates are open, and it could be invaded. One thing to note, as a little foreshadowing – this would require that the surrounding army be well-provisioned – they’d have to have a lot of food and supplies to support their massive army surrounding the city for such a long time.

So the siege had gone on so long that all of Israel’s food had run out – so much so that the head of a donkey sold for eighty shekels of silver. So instead of a “Pork Bellies” market, they had a ‘donkey head’ market – and the stock price on donkey heads and doves’ dung (or seed pods!) – had gone through the roof!

Then a woman approaches the king and this next section is so horrific, I’m going to skip over it – but they had basically resorted to cannibalism –

This is indicative that Israel needed to repent and turn back to God – as prophesied in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 28

47 “Because you have not served the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you

…52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.

And it goes on to describe how they will be under siege and will have to resort to cannibalism –

and this is the point where the nation of Israel is -

2 Kings 6:30

30 When the king heard what the woman said, he tore his clothes. As he was passing by on the wall, the people could see he was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. 31 Then he said, “May God judge me severely if Elisha son of Shaphat still has his head by the end of the day!”

As I read a section of Scripture - I’ve been thinking a lot about how Mike encourages us to look at each story from different points of view – we’ve done exercises where we’ll read a section and then re-consider it from another perspective.

In this case, I am struck by the anger of the king – He is angry and grieved, but not at himself, or the people of Israel, or even of God - he is essentially blaming Elisha the prophet instead of recognizing their own sin in contributing to the calamity they were facing.

Like the old phrase – don’t shoot the messenger!

32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. The king (of Israel) sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” 33 He was still talking to them when the messenger approached and (the king) said, “Look, the LORD is responsible for this disaster! Why should I continue to wait for the LORD to help?”

Here the king was at least honest enough to admit his anger was against God… -

But we tend to blame so many other things.

I think this is especially relevant in this time of COVID-19. We blame the government, or we blame mandates, or we blame God – but we need to remember that God brings life – while Jesus said that

John 10: 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

So we need to stand against the schemes of the devil – which are to divide us – and to stand in the armor of God’s truth – which serves to unite us.

7 1 Elisha replied, “Listen to the LORD’s message. This is what the LORD has said, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” 2 An officer who was the king’s right-hand man responded to the prophet, “Look, even if the LORD made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”

So Elisha has pronounced the Lord’s message – This is what the Lord has said. Even though the king was blaming God, God still had a word for the people of Israel – and it was a good word - that within 24 hours – the entire economic situation would change so much that food would be supplied in such abundance that prices would radically drop.

As we “put ourselves in the shoes’ of the characters of this story – This is one character’s shoes I would encourage you to avoid. The king’s right-hand man – literally the guy the king leaned on – scoffed at the word of the Lord. “FAKE NEWS” he shouted.

This officer doubted God. He doubted God’s ability. He doubted God’s creativity. He doubted God’s messenger. He doubted God’s timing.

And Elisha tells him he will see it but not get to participate in it.

3 Now four men with a skin disease were sitting at the entrance of the city gate.

They were outside the city because they were lepers – untouchables – outcasts – who would be required to shout, “Unclean” so no one would come near them.

They said to one another, “Why are we just sitting here waiting to die? 4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, we’ll live; if they kill us—well, we were going to die anyway.”

I love their ‘go for broke attitude’ – and maybe it is just a sign of desperation – but they are like – if we stay here, we die – if we go over there, what’s the worst that can happen? The same as if we stay here – so let’s go for it!

5 So they started toward the Syrian camp at dusk. When they reached the (furthermost) edge of the Syrian camp, there was no one there.

So they approached the camp from the far side – as if they were coming from afar and not from the city. I think they left at dusk for a couple reasons – 1) As lepers – they wouldn’t want the Syrians to be able to see their skin condition. 2) In order to get to the furthermost part of the camp, it was really important that they not be seen as coming from the city – and they wouldn’t want the Syrians thinking they were attacking them.

6 The Lord had caused the Syrian camp to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army. Then they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has paid the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!”

I love to speculate as to what type of mechanism God used to cause them to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a large army – was it an earthquake? Distant/continuous thunder? Maybe it WAS an actual army passing by? Maybe it was just in each man’s head – however God did it, God caused them to hear the sound of a large army and they fled for their lives:

7 So they got up and fled at dusk, leaving behind their tents, horses, and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

Remember earlier how I said that to stock for a long-term siege for a large army would require vast reserves of food? The Syrians left it ALL behind!

8 When the men with a skin disease reached the edge of the camp, they entered a tent and had a meal. They also took some silver, gold, and clothes and went and hid it all. Then they went back and entered another tent. They looted it and went and hid what they had taken. 9 Then they said to one another, “It’s not right what we’re doing! This is a day to celebrate, but we haven’t told anyone. If we wait until dawn, we’ll be punished. So come on, let’s go and inform the royal palace.”

Here the lepers experienced the miraculous provision of God! They were not only saved from starvation TODAY, they were pretty much set for life! And yet, they knew they had a responsibility to SHARE THE GOOD NEWS. Now whether they believed that the punishment would come from the king or from God may be immaterial, but they recognized that their good fortune required ACTION.

10 So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city. They told them, “We entered the Syrian camp and there was no one there. We didn’t even hear a man’s voice. But the horses and donkeys are still tied up, and the tents remain up.” 11 The gatekeepers relayed the news to the royal palace.

12 The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”

The king is cynical – he thinks it is a trap. It will take a little bit to convince him that this is true. Remember, lepers were regarded as cursed by God and not generally trusted. And even though Elisha had (effectively) declared less than a day earlier that the siege would be over, food aplenty – the king was unwilling to believe it. He might as well be saying – “no one will take me for a fool! I might let everyone starve to death, but I won’t be tricked!” Cynicism can be deadly.

13 One of his advisers replied, “Pick some men and have them take five of the horses that are left in the city. (Even if they are killed, their fate will be no different than that of all the Israelite people—we’re all going to die!) Let’s send them out so we can know for sure what’s going on.”

Apparently there were only a few horses left in the city (no wonder a donkey head was so expensive!). And the advisers had the same attitude as the lepers – we could stay here and die or we can check it out and possibly live!

14 So they picked two horsemen and the king sent them out to track the Syrian army. He ordered them, “Go and find out what’s going on.” 15 So they tracked them as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste.

Can you imagine what the Syrian army must have experienced? They were running for their lives and casting off anything that would slow them down!

The scouts went back and told the king.

16 Then the people went out and looted the Syrian camp. A seah of finely milled flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, just as in the LORD’s message.

17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. 18 The prophet had told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” 19 But the officer had replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the LORD made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha had said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!”] 20 This is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him to death in the city gate.

My friend Linda’s tagline under her profile picture is this: “Fellow beggar, I have good news. I know where there is bread.”

We are all just fellow beggars in search of bread. I love love love that God takes the marginalized – the outcasts – the lepers, and makes them the heroes of so many stories. Here, they came upon salvation for themselves – They could have let their fear prevent them – as one could imagine that their many sins would keep them from Christ. But as the lepers entered the Syrian camp – there was nothing there to accuse them. Just as when we came to Christ, our sins no longer accuse us. The lepers ate and drank of it until they were full – so full that they could no longer keep it to themselves! People share good news when they experience good news!

When it comes to telling others about Jesus, what can we learn from the lepers? Do you have a ‘go for broke’ mentality? Have you ever asked yourself, “What’s the worst that can happen (if I talk to someone about Jesus)?” Maybe it starts with sharing a verse that spoke to you.

Are you imbibing in Christ? Are you rejoicing in Him? Delighting in Him? It starts by spending TIME with Him.

These lepers no sooner found what was good for themselves than they straightway went off to tell it to others. And if you have found Christ, after you are sure you have received Him, and have rejoiced in Him for a little season, and fed upon Him, and enriched yourselves by Him as your hidden treasure, it behooves yon to go and tell to others of His grace, and your joy. This Gospel is not to be stifled. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Colossians 1: 25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God—given to me for you—in order to complete the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. 29 Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.

So what is this mystery? The mystery is that Christ dwells in those who put their faith in Him. Jesus said in John 1 – to as many as received Him – to them He gives the right to become children of God – and in 1 John 5 - 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And if you look, people all around us are starving – Starving for Jesus and the word of God. There has been this siege that has been laid against the whole world, where we have been held captive and told to stay in our homes and prevented from having contact with one another – BUT – there are ways to do this – safely – where we can make a difference in others’ lives. It might be having a drive-by blessing! Patty has been accused of drive-by blessings (Sorry! Cindy called you out on it!) where she drives to a home and spends some time encouraging one another.

There are so many new technologies – like Zoom – or Facetime, or Rooms in Messenger – I’ve reconnected with so many college friends, just in Messenger. I’ve been able to encourage a brother I led to the Lord – he is wanting to do more with exercise, so I am able to ask, How is that coming with the exercise?! We probably haven’t seen each other in 30 years! But there are ways to proclaim Jesus, and what He is doing in your life, and what He can do in others’ lives – even in these perilous times. And this is the message that people need to hear the most: That Jesus loves them, and that He gave Himself for them, and that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father – we do thank You for, again, Your word – You give us so many stories that illustrate so many great truths about Your character and your great love, and Your desire to turn our hearts back to You. So we ask that You would, in a mighty way, fill us with the Power of Your Spirit – that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us – so please empower us to do something so simple, as to just share what You’re doing in our lives, and to not fear any consequences. Yes, we need to use wisdom. We need to NOT turn people away from the gospel by the harshness or brashness by which we share – but we need to turn people to You and allow them to experience what we’ve experienced – to drink deeply of Your love – to experience Your power and love – and Lord, that they could know for sure that they could spend eternity with You when they have You dwelling inside of them.

Lord, I ask now that You would help us to go forth from this place, to be Your light and salt, and that we would be more and more like You, by the power of Your Spirit living in us. And we pray all of these things in Jesus’ Name.