2 Kings chapter 6. Last week
we considered the first portion of the chapter, specifically
God's deliverance through the prophet Elisha of that one prophet's
axe head that fell into the river Jordan. God did minister to a
particular need, a rather mundane need in terms of the world and
military and strategies and that sort of thing, God nevertheless
comes and blesses this one servant. And then as well, the Syrians
had come to Israel in raiding bands and wanted to try and get
the best of Israel. That through the prophet Elisha,
God struck them with blindness, led them right into the nation's
capital, the northern kingdom's capital of Samaria, and then
they were captured essentially, and then they were let go. Now
in chapter 6 at verse 24, we'll pick up reading, we see that
Syria comes back to Israel, back to Samaria specifically. And
it happened after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his
army and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great
famine in Samaria, and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's
head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of
a cab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. Then as the
king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out
to him, saying, Help my lord, O king! And he said, If the Lord
does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the
threshing floor or from the winepress? Then the king said to her, What
is troubling you? And she answered, This woman
said to me, Give your son that we may eat him today, and we
will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him.
And I said to her on the next day, Give your son that we may
eat him. But she has hidden her son. Now
it happened when the king heard the words of the woman, that
he tore his clothes, and as he passed by on the wall, the people
looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body.
Then he said, God do so to me and more also, if the head of
Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on him today. But Elisha was
sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him.
And the king sent a man ahead of him. But before the messenger
came to him, he said to the elders, Do you see how this son of a
murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when
the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold him fast at the
door. Is not the sound of his master's
feet behind him? And while he was still talking
with them, there was the messenger coming down to him. And then
the king said, Surely this calamity is from the Lord. Why should
I wait for the Lord any longer? Then Elisha said, Hear the word
of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Tomorrow
about this time a sea of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel,
and two seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. So an
officer, on whose hand the king leaned, answered the man of God
and said, Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, how could
this thing be? And he said, In fact, you shall
see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Now there
were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate, and they
said to one another, why are we sitting here until we die?
If we say, we will enter the city, the famine is in the city,
and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also.
Now therefore come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If
they keep us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we
shall only die. And they rose at twilight to
go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they had come to the
outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was
there. For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear
the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of
a great army. So they said to one another,
look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of
the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us. Therefore,
they arose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact, their
tents, their horses and their donkeys, and they fled for their
lives. And when these lepers came to
the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and
drank and carried from it silver and gold and clothing and went
and hid them. And they came back and entered
another tent and carried some from there also and went and
hid it. Then they said to one another,
we are not doing right. This day is a day of good news
and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light,
some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore come, let us
go and tell the king's household. So they went and called to the
gatekeepers of the city and told them saying, we went to the Syrian
camp and surprisingly no one was there, not a human sound,
only horses and donkeys tied and the tents intact. And the
gatekeepers called out and they told it to the king's household
inside. So the king arose in the night
and said to his servants, let me now tell you what the Syrians
have done to us. They know that we are hungry.
Therefore, they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves
in the field, saying, when they come out of the city, we shall
catch them alive and get into the city. And one of his servants
answered and said, Please, let several men take five of the
remaining horses which are left in the city. Look, they may either
become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it,
or indeed I say that they may become like all the multitude
of Israel left from those who are consumed. So let us send
them and see. Therefore they took two chariots
with horses, and the king sent them in the direction of the
Syrian army, saying, Go and see. And they went after them to the
Jordan, and indeed all the road was full of garments and weapons
which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. So the messengers
returned and told the king. And the people went out and plundered
the tents of the Syrians. So a sea of fine flour was sold
for a shekel, and two seas of barley for a shekel, according
to the word of the Lord. Now the king had appointed the
officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But
the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the
man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
So it happened, just as the man of God had spoken to the king,
saying, To see as a barley for a shekel, and to see a fine flower
for a shekel, shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of
Samaria. Then that officer had answered
the man of God and said, ìNow look, if the Lord would make
windows in heaven, could such a thing be?î And he said, ìIn
fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of
it.î And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in
the gate, and he died. Amen. Well, as we look at this
particular chapter, we see the brutality, not only of war, but
the brutality of rebelling against God Almighty. We will see as
we move through the chapter that that's one of the primary emphases.
Israel is reaping what they had sown. God had promised in the
The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, that if the nation was faithful
to Him, they were consistent in their obligations with reference
to the covenant, they would be blessed in the land. But if they
go into the land, they take on the gods of the land, they turn
away from Yahweh of Israel, then they would reap the consequences
for that unfaithfulness. and this chapter highlights,
or this section highlights that in spades. Well, it breaks down
into two main sections. First, the siege of Samaria in
chapter 6, verses 24 to 33, and then the deliverance of Samaria
in chapter 7, verses 1 to 20. So let's look first at the siege
of Samaria. We ought to notice what may appear
to be a bit of an inconsistency between verses 23 and 24. Notice,
so the bands, in verse 23, of Syrian raiders came no more into
the land of Israel. And then in verse 24, it happened
after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his army
and went up and besieged Samaria. Now, up until this particular
time, there had been sort of an uneasy peace between these
two nations. But already in chapter 5, Syria
sends bands of raiders, not the entirety of their army, for a
full incursion into the land but bands of raiders under the
command of the king of Syria. So the uneasy relationship gives
way to sporadic bands of raiders to full-fledged war here initiated
by Syria to accomplish what Jehoram had suspected back in chapter
5 at verse 7. He says there, therefore please
consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. So again,
there was a truce, there was a peace, but it was uneasy, it
was tenuous at best, and Jehoram always suspected that the king
of Syria was trying to pick a fight with him. So these bands of raiders
come in chapters 5 and 6, and at the end of chapter 6 we have
a full-on assault. Proven describes it this way
on the statement in 623. Syrians no longer venture into
Israel's territories, not even in large groups sent by the king
himself. When they come again, it will
be in the safety of overwhelming numbers. So it's not a band of
raiders, but rather it's a full-scale assault upon the nation of Israel
by the Syrians. And then note specifically the
strategy that they employ. They basically besiege the city. They secure the city so that
persons cannot escape and so that supplies cannot make their
way in. As Matthew Henry says, the Syrians
designed not to storm the city, but to starve it. We see that
they were very successful in this particular process. Now
note the effects of the siege in verses 25 to 29. There are
famine conditions in verse 25. There was a great famine in Samaria
and indeed they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for
80 shekels of silver. Now one shekel was about a month's
wages. So you're spending 80 shekels
of silver for a donkey's head and one-fourth of a cab of dove
droppings for five shekels of silver. So the text is telling
us that there was not food in the city. The text is telling
us that the Syrians were being successful. The text is telling
us that the Syrians, instead of storming it, were in fact
starving the city. Davis says, who knows how many
calories in a donkey's head, but it was probably not nutritious
and it was certainly not kosher. So they are reduced to eating
an unclean food. As he goes on to explain, the
donkey has a single, not split hoof, and is not a ruminant. Hence its meat is unclean for
Israel. So it's showing the degree or
the length of the famine that has affected them. Now some try
to explain that the dove droppings here is probably something like
a carob pod. But Robert Alter makes this observation. He says, some scholars understand
the term for pigeon droppings as a reference to carob pods,
but that dilutes the hyperbolic power of the statement that even
animal filth was consumed by the starving people and that
at a stiff price. Again, there's a situation where
they don't have Superstore, they don't have Walmart, they don't
have the internet, they can't call and have people deliver
food, so they're having to spend exorbitant amount of money on
the sorts of things that we would not normally eat. That is the
effect of faithlessness before the living and the true gods.
We've got famine conditions, but notice the text goes on to
indicate the desperate conditions affecting the people. This situation
involving two women with two sons. Now it's certainly reminiscent
of that instance where Solomon deals with the prostitutes in
1 Kings chapter 3. But we see that Israel has come
a long way and not in a good sense. Solomon was able to take
those two prostitutes and the situation that faced them and
render a verdict that was indeed just and upright. This king,
Jehoram, is unable to speak to this particular situation. Proven
says we have traveled far in Israel's story, however, from
the glorious era when a wise king could ensure justice. Now
note the woman's particular problem. Verse 26, she says, Help my lord,
O king. And he said, if the Lord does
not help you, where can I find help for you? I don't think he's
saying it in a legitimate way or in a genuine way or in a sort
of a way that would console this particular woman. It's more ironic
than anything because he goes on to say, from the threshing
floor or from the wine press. The idea being that neither the
threshing floor or the wine press is able to produce the sorts
of food that persons need in this famine. The city has been
sealed off. The Syrians are trying to starve
us. The king recognizes this and
understands this, and he cannot help this particular woman. So
he asks her, what is troubling you? And she gives the response,
this woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today,
and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him,
and I said to her on the next day, give your son that we may
eat him, but she has hidden her son. Now, unfortunately, this
is a terrible effect of a famine situation. It's not the only
time that this would happen in Israel's history. In fact, if
you turn to the book of Lamentations, The Book of Lamentations records
Jeremiah's lament over the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century
B.C. Now, what we are studying in
terms of Syria and Israel happens in the 9th century B.C. So, this
is something that was indeed the case that would indeed affect
the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness to God Almighty. Notice in Lamentations chapter
2, specifically at verse 20. Jeremiah is the lamenter. Jeremiah
is the weeper. Jeremiah is the one that is fleshing
out or writing out or pouring out his heart in terms of what
has taken place when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians had come
and destroyed the southern kingdom. Notice in 2.20, See, O LORD,
and consider, to whom have you done this? Should the women eat
their offspring, the children they have cuddled? Should the
priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? And
then again in Lamentations chapter 4. Lamentations chapter 4 at
verse 10, the hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children. They became food for them in
the destruction of the daughter of my people. Notice in Ezekiel
chapter 5, and I'm not pointing this out just so you'll be disgusted
or sickened or say, wow, I never thought such things were in the
Bible. I'll never read it again. This is the consequences and
this is the effects of sin. I think far too often we do not
appreciate that reality. Far too often we sanitize sin. Far too often we treat it as
if it's a domesticated pet. Far too often we look at it as
something that really doesn't bring the kinds of consequences
that, say, Paul the Apostle tells us that it does. The wages of
sin is death. We don't make that connection.
And so it's good for us to confront sin and see it as it is expressed
in the Bible. And this is a result, again,
not of Elisha the prophet, not of the Lord God in terms of him
being some sadistic being that pours out these sorts of things
upon his people, but rather it is the effect of Jehoram, the
king of Israel, owing largely to Jezebel and Ahab before him,
or owing largely to Jeroboam the son of Nebat before them,
that plunge the nation into depravity. The result or consequence of
such things is war, it is famine, and it is such the case that
when people are confronted with such things, they'll eat their
own children. Notice in Ezekiel 5.10, Therefore
fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall
eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments
among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all
the winds. So we see those Old Testament
examples, but it also occurred in the A.D. situation, in A.D. 70. I think I shared this going
through the Olivet Discourse. When Jerusalem was under siege
by the Roman armies, the same sort of thing took place. There
was famine. There were persons that ate their
children. In fact, Josephus, in his Wars
of the Jews, indicates or highlights in a particular section, an extended
section, a certain Mary who cooked and ate her own son in the siege
of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. So this is a consequence
of war, a consequence of famine, something that was facing these
persons in this siege of Samaria. It shows the desperate situation
that they were facing. It shows the desperate conditions
that they were facing as a result of their sin and rebellion against
God. So we understand the famine, the desperation, but we need
to see that this is indeed covenantal in nature. Turn back to Leviticus
chapter 26. Those of you who have been with
us in our study of the former prophets, which is Joshua, the
second Kings, will know that many times I've referred to Leviticus
26 and Deuteronomy 28. In a sense, those chapters function
as a blueprint for Israel's history. They're programmatic. You do
what you're supposed to do, blessings will come upon you. You disobey
and rebel against God and go whoring away from God, then curses
will come upon you. It is a listing of the covenant
blessings for obedience and the covenant cursings for disobedience. Notice in Leviticus 26, specifically
at verse 27. And after all this, if you do
not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk
contrary to you in fury. And I, even I, will chastise
you seven times for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your
sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters." Notice in
Deuteronomy 28, same emphasis there, same idea, same promise
concerning the curse of God for covenantal infidelity. Notice
in Deuteronomy 28, 52. They shall besiege you at all
your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you
trust, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege
you at all your gates throughout all your land, which the Lord
your God has given you. You shall eat the fruit of your
own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the
Lord your God has given you in the siege, and desperate straits
in which your enemies shall distress you. The sensitive and very refined
man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the
wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom
he leaves behind, so that he will not give any of them the
flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing
left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall
distress you at all your gates. The tender and delicate woman
among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on
the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity will refuse to
the husband of her bosom and to her son and her daughter her
placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children
whom she bears. For she will eat them secretly
for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in
which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. Meredith
Klein says, but the inhumanity of the enemy warrior pales beside
the bestiality of even the tenderest Israelite mother turned cannibalistic
in the horror of the siege. You see, that's what is happening
in this particular section. And again, I know the temptation
is there for us to recoil in horror and say, I cannot believe
that such things are recorded in the Bible. and forget the
reality that it was the sin of Israel, the sin of the kings,
the sin of those who continued to reject the living and the
true God, who gave them over to such things that was the reason
for this particular wretchedness. Now notice, the conditions facing
Israel had been foretold by God. And then notice that the conditions
facing Israel demonstrate the futility of government aid at
such times. You see, when it comes to a situation
like this, it is only supernatural help. that will ultimately bring
aid, right? The government can't help you
when it gets to this position. Jehoram is useless. Jehoram has
no ability here whatsoever. He says as much, if the Lord
does not help you, where can I find help for you? Now notice Jehoram or the king's
response in verses 30 to 33. He has distress, verse 30. And naturally so. I don't think
any king, as bad as he may be, is going to look upon such a
situation and smile or laugh or joke. He is distressed over
the situation. He tore his clothes, and as he
passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath
he had sackcloth on his body. Notice the king's indignation.
He's upset, he's angry, but it's not at his own sin. It's not
at the fact that Ahab and Jezebel taught him from his youth to
be an idolater. It's not at Jeroboam, the son
of Nebat. It's not at the nation around
him that continues to plunge themselves headlong into sin.
It's at the prophet. He's upset with Elisha, probably
thinking that Syria wants to get rid of Elisha, or perhaps
that Elisha is able to stop this siege, but he is not doing so.
Because in the previous section in the chapter, Elisha is the
instrument by which the Syrian armies are blinded, not totally,
but confused, be clouded, and they are led into Samaria and
they are captured. So probably the king is wondering,
why is Elisha allowing this to continue? Why is Elisha allowing
such things to happen? And he makes this threat in verse
31. He said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of
Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on him today. It's a terrible
thing, isn't it? The guy has his kingdom collapsing
around him, and he's cutting himself off from the primary
aid that God has indeed provided. The commentator Paul House says,
he is now acting toward Elisha the way Ahab acted toward Elijah. He considers his chief asset
a liability, his best friend an enemy, and swears to have
the prophet killed. It makes absolutely positively
no sense whatsoever. Matthew Poole says this wretched
and partial prince overlooks his own great and various sins,
and amongst others, his obstinate cleaving to the idolatry of the
calves." Remember when we meet Jehoram, he's not as bad as Ahab
and Jezebel, but he hasn't given up calf worship. He still continues
to worship those calves that were instituted by Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat. So back to Matthew Pool. This
wretched and partial prince overlooks his own great and various sins,
and amongst others, his obstinate cleaving to the idolatry of the
calves, the whoredoms and witchcrafts of his mother Jezebel, and the
wickedness of his people, which was the true and proper cause
of this and all their calamities. And he lays the blame of all
upon Elisha." You see, when all else fails, blame the prophet. When all else fails, blame the
prophet's God. You see, he is going to do that
very thing in just a moment. Now, note his intention in verses
32 and 33. The prophet knew the king's intention. Elisha knew what was happening.
He's sitting in his house. The elders were sitting with
him. The king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger
came to him, he said to the elders. Now, messenger is a very nice
translation. It should be assassin. I mean,
it really is messenger in terms of the Hebrew, the way it should
be translated, but he's an assassin. He is there to behead the prophet
Elisha, and Elisha knows that. The king sent a man ahead of
him, but before the messenger or assassin came to him, he said
to the elders, do you see how this son of a murderer has sent
someone to take away my head? There's that prophet Elisha who
doesn't fear nor flatter the face of any man. He's not going
to kowtow with reference to the king. He's not going to say,
oh king, I respect you greatly. No, you're the son of a murderer
and you are not turning to repentance, but rather you are turning to
further acts of murder. Now there might be a hint in
verse 30 that Jehoram had been pleaded with by the prophet Elisha
to repent. Notice what he's wearing. He's
wearing sackcloth, which is an evidence or a description of
someone that is in repentance. Now we notice from what King
Jehoram is doing here, this isn't genuine repentance. This isn't
the real deal. Turning to murder instead of
repentance is not repentance. It is further acts of atrocity
and sinfulness and wickedness. Notice verse 32. Look when the
messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door.
Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? So Elisha tells
the elders what is happening. The king has sent an assassin
to take off my head. I want you to block him. I want
you to keep him out of here, because I don't want him to kill
me. And then in verse 33, while he was still talking with him,
there was the messenger coming down to him, and then the king
said... I don't think the king is with him at this particular
time. The king said it through the messenger. The king said
it through his servant. And here's what the king says.
He goes from blaming Elisha to now blaming Yahweh. Surely this
calamity is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord
any longer? Again, I think the emphasis here
is that Elisha did tell him to repent. The sackcloth was an
external sign or a signal or a symbol that he was supposedly
repenting. But his attitude did not match
the sackcloth. The heart did not conform to
the exterior. And this gives evidence to this.
Surely this calamity is from the Lord. Why should I wait for
the Lord any longer?" In other words, Elisha, I've heeded your
instruction, I've put on the sackcloth, I've done my bit,
and yet God hasn't delivered. Why should I wait any longer?
Off with your head, Elisha. I am tired of dealing with you,
and I'm tired of dealing with the God who sent this calamity
upon us. That's probably indicative of
his heart. Now the fact that chapter 7 is
in the Bible, and the fact that there is a deliverance from this
siege in Samaria, is the proof positive that God is indeed a
gracious God. That God is indeed a long-suffering
God. That Jehoram should receive a
stay of execution. that Jehoram should be spared
from this sort of a just judgment from God is proof positive of
Yahweh's long-suffering, of His kindness, of His mercy. So that is the siege of Samaria.
Let's look at the deliverance of Samaria in chapter 7. Notice
the promise in verses 1 and 2. Then Elisha said, Hear the word
of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a sea
of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seas of barley
for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. You see what he's saying? Not
necessarily underscoring the good deal that there's going
to be now on fine flour and barley, but there's going to be fine
flour and barley. You're no longer going to have
to scrape out the stuff inside of a donkey's head or eat dove
droppings in order to get some sustenance that you had to pay
a great deal of money for. Notice the immediacy of it. Tomorrow
about this time a sea of fine flour shall be sold for a shackle
and two seas of barley for a shackle at the gate of Samaria. Again,
the long-suffering of God. The king threatens to cut off
Elisha's head, and Elisha prophesies that everything's going to be
reversed by tomorrow about this time. Everything's going to be
changed back to quasi-normal tomorrow at this time. And so
this officer of the king doubts this promise. It says in verse
2, so an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the
man of God and said, Lord, look, if the Lord should make windows
in heaven, could this thing be? I think the language is reminiscent
of Genesis 7-11 and Genesis 8-2, when God opened the windows of
heaven, as it were, and sent forth rain to flood and destroy
the world. So the man is essentially saying,
if the windows of heaven were to open up today, there's no
way we'd have the supplies of barley and the supplies of fine
flour that you've just prophesied that we would have. It just can't
happen, Elisha. The math just doesn't add up.
It is going to take time for these crops to come into bloom.
It's going to take time for trade to be restored in Samaria. Now, notice what Elisha says.
He confirms the promise and he adds to it a dimension that is
a threatened judgment upon this officer. And he said, in fact,
you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Proven says, what is possible
for God? Now, this is a real practical
application in the passage. I realize that. been going over
the siege of Samaria and horrifying everybody at the thought of cannibalism.
But just stop and see. This is the same guy that you're
going to see in chapter 7, 16 to 20. He's the guy that's guarding
the gate or watching the gate when trade is restored in Samaria. And what happens? He gets trampled. He sees it, but he doesn't eat
it. What's the point? Unbelief was his undoing. You
know what's primary in this chapter, or one of the primary emphases,
is the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord, according
to the Word of the Lord. In other words, you need to believe
the Word of the Lord, no matter how unbelievable it may appear. This is the kind of faith that
Abraham demonstrates, according to the Apostle Paul in Romans
chapter 4, who, contrary to hope, in hope believed. You see, that's
what faith is. Faith takes the promises of God
and receives them and embraces them. Faith doesn't hear the
promises of God and say, well, there's no way that could ever
happen. Faith takes the promises of God and says, well, if God
has said that He grants grace to His people so that they can
indeed mortify the deeds of the body, well, I'm going to walk
by faith in that promise. I'm not going to say things like,
well, I just can't fight this sin. I can't tame my tongue.
I can't guard my eyes. I can't stop lusting. I can't
stop taking this drug, or I can't stop drinking this alcohol. That
is not believing the promises of God. Romans 8.13 is very clear. If by the Spirit you do mortify
the deeds of the body, you will live. Isn't that what God says? You're no longer... you're not
under law, but you're under grace. Therefore, sin shall have no
dominion over you. Do we believe that promise or
do we whine and cry and snivel and say, well, I just can't.
Well, God has said you can. Do you believe Him or not? You're
going to walk by faith in the Son of God who loved you and
gave himself up for you? Or are you going to whine and
snivel and cry and be like this officer and say, look, even if
the heavens opened up and rain flooded the earth, there's no
way we'd have that fine flour and barley for the people in
Samaria by tomorrow. He doesn't believe God. Proven
says, what is possible for God cannot be measured in terms of
what is conceivable to mortals. The officer will see the miracle
happen, but he himself will not eat. Salvation for the people
will involve judgment for this one man. For to mock the prophetic
word is to mock Yahweh. That's the point. He's mocking
God. God, in His mercy and in His
kindness, instead of completely obliterating Samaria, allowing
the Syrians to run roughshod over the city, and multiplying
the number of mothers that would eat their own children, God raises
up the Prophet, and the Prophet promises, by tomorrow, these
things are going to end. And what happens? The Messenger
says, well, this can't ever happen. And we surmise that he's telling
the king, and the king expresses that same sentiment with reference
to this whole thing. We'll see that in verse 12. He
doesn't believe the promises of God, the king himself. Now
notice the instruments of deliverance. Remember last week, I said it
on Wednesday night, I think I said it on Sunday, the Bible's exciting.
How does God deliver? Through the most unlikely means
you and I would ever imagine. He doesn't rain guns and artillery
and tanks and helicopters out of heaven so that the people
in Israel and Samaria will be better fortified to beat the
Syrians. He's got four lepers that serve
as his instrument. You talk about exciting, you
talk about perplexing in the right way, God does in fact move
in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. Notice in chapter
7 at verse 3. Now, there were four leprous
men at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another,
kind of an interesting sort of flow in the context. We've got
this siege in Samaria, we've got cannibalistic mothers, we've
got a king who wants to de-head or behead the prophet Elisha. We've got the prophet Elisha
saying, everything is going to change by tomorrow. We've got this officer,
this messenger of the king saying, there's absolutely no way this
is going to happen. And Elisha says, not only is
it going to happen, you're going to see it, and you're not going
to eat of it. And now, by the way, there were these four leprous
men at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another,
why are we sitting here until we die? If we say we will enter
the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there.
And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender
to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall
live, and if they kill us, we shall only die. And what they
say is essentially this. We've got nothing to lose. If
we stay here, we're going to die. We go into the city, we're
going to die. We go to the Syrians, if they
kill us, we're going to die. But, who knows, they might throw
us a loaf of bread. It's just God, isn't it? You
wouldn't expect this. You wouldn't expect deliverance
from the Syrian siege of Samaria to come through for leprous men. You see, it is inconceivable
to us the way that God works, but the way that God works ought
to elicit from us praise and worship and adoration, because
it's truly amazing the way that He displays Himself. House makes
the observation, ironically, just as the once leprous Naaman
led Syria to many victories over Israel, so now these lepers will
lead Israel's looting of Syria's army. So notice their success. They go to the camp of the Syrians
and what do they find? They find all the stuff of the
Syrians, but no Syrians. So what do they do? Now they
start to meander about and eat and drink and load up. What would
you do if you were a leprous man in this scenario and you
had been starving and you see all of this spoil and all of
this booty, all of this loot, and not a Syrian soldier around?
I mean, look at what we read there specifically. In verse
8, when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they
went into one tent and ate and drank and carried from it silver
and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came
back and entered another tent and carried some from there also
and went and hid it. It's kind of like the kid who
comes home and his mother's been baking all day and she's gone. She went
to the store and he sees one tray of goodies after another
tray of goodies after another tray of goodies and he bounces
from one to another and he's eating as he goes. That's what
these leprous men are doing. They go to the camp, all the
stuff is there, but there's not a Syrian in the midst. So they
help themselves. Now, verse 9, they get this pang
of conscience. They say, wait a minute. We've
been greatly blessed today, but we've remained silent. Unless
some judgment or punishment come upon us, we really should tell
somebody about this. We should really send word to
the king in order to inform him of what's happened with reference
to the Syrian camp. So we see, with reference to
the instruments of deliverance, we see these four lepers. They
reckon they will be punished if they keep the good news to
themselves, so they send word to the king. Now, considering
this instruments of deliverance, we not only have the four lepers
of verses 3 and 4 and 7 to 11, but we have this servant of the
king in verses 12 to 15. So when the word gets to the
king's household, what's the king's response? He doesn't believe
what the messenger has told him about what Elisha has told him.
He does not believe that tomorrow at this time there will be fine
flour and barley traded again in Samaria. He does not believe
this. He thinks that the empty camp,
with reference to the Syrians, is a ruse by the Syrians to lay
in wait and to ambush the Israelites. They know we're starving. They
know that we're going to go to the camp. We're going to go and
try to find some foodstuffs. And when we do so, they're going
to seize upon us and kill us. That's the king's complaint in
verse 12. He's operating again with unbelief. He has not believed
the testimony of the prophet Elisha. that trade will be restored
on the morrow. He says, let me now tell you,
verse 12, what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we
are hungry, therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide
themselves in the field, saying, when they come out of the city,
we shall catch them alive and get into the city. Now the servant,
and God has blessed servants in the book of 2 Kings. More
often than not, it's unnamed servants that speak wisdom in
the presence of the kings. It was the unnamed servant who
said, Elisha can help us with reference to the situation that
we're facing with this Moabite rebellion. It is unnamed servants
that come up with wisdom. So the instruments of deliverance
in terms of the siege of Samaria comes to the four leprous men
and this servant, this wise servant of the king. The king is convinced
that this is a strategy to destroy Israel. The servant essentially
says something like the lepers before him. What have we got
to lose? King, why wouldn't we scout this
out? Why wouldn't we send men with
the five remaining horses? You know why there's only five
remaining horses in Samaria? Because all the other horses
have been dead and eaten. There's only five left because
they haven't been shish kebabed up to this point. You see, before
you eat the donkey's head or the pigeon droppings, you're
probably going to eat some tasty horse meat. Stuff that we wouldn't
normally eat in our day-to-day lives probably looks yummy and
inviting after Syria has besieged your city and you are dying of
starvation. So the servant says, take some
men, take the five remaining horses and scout it out. Check
it out. We've got nothing to lose. We're
going to die anyway. If the Syrians are in their camp,
we're going to die in the famine. If the Syrians are in their camp,
we're going to die quicker. If the Syrians are waiting for
us so that we go to their camp and they ambush us, we're going
to die. It's a die-die situation. We might as well investigate
what these leprous men have said and go check it out for ourselves. So God's instruments are most
unlikely for leprous men and a servant to the king. But underscoring
all of this instrumentality is the providence of God. You see,
the whole account hinges upon God's supernatural power, showing
a miraculous display of confusing the Syrian armies. I skipped
specifically verses five, six, and seven. Notice in verse five,
they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And
when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, To their
surprise, no one was there. Note the language of verse six.
Four, the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the
noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great
army. So they said to one another,
look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of
the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us. Therefore,
they arose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact. their
tents, their horses, and their donkeys, and they fled for their
lives." So the unlikely instruments of the four leprous men and the
servant, it's all hinged upon the providence of God in confounding
the enemies of Israel, confounding these Syrians. Remember in the
previous section in chapter 6, When the Syrians come, Elisha's
servant freaks out. Elisha's servant is just utterly
perplexed, and Elisha prays for him that he'll know the stability
and comfort of the Lord, and then he shows him, or he asks
for God to show him a vision, and the prophet's servant sees
this vision of the armies of the Lord God Almighty. So in
the previous part of chapter 6, the unseen armies is the thing
that stabilizes the servant of the prophet. Here in this portion
in chapter 7, it's these unseen armies that God uses to terrorize
the Syrians, so they leave their stuff and they get out of Dodge. So the unlikely instruments coupled
with God's powerful providence and his sovereign ability is
what is used by him for his glory. Proven says, supernaturally deceived
into thinking that they are faced with a mercenary army, the Syrians
flee from the field, abandoning their possessions where they
lie. The lepers simply walk into their
camp as unwitting victors. See, God prepared the way for
these unlikely instruments. God prepared the way for these
lepers. God prepared the way so that
this servant would say, hey, why don't we give it a shot and
test the veracity of these lepers' report? Matthew Henry makes this
observation. He says, the wicked flee when
no one pursues. Isn't that the Proverbs 28 one?
Righteous or bold as a lion, but the wicked flee when no one
pursues. That's what's happened here with the Syrians. They leave
their stuff. And when they give chase, or
when the servants' words are heeded, and they take these horses,
most likely sending the horses in front of them, them behind,
perhaps with ropes, so they can survey and recon the area, they
keep seeing Syrian stuff all along the way. It wasn't a strategic
departure. It was a run-and-hide departure.
So they know of a truth that the Syrians have departed. But
back to Matthew Henry, makes this observation, the wicked
flee when none pursues. God can, when he pleases, dispirit
the boldest and most brave and make the stoutest heart to tremble. Those that will not fear God,
he can make to fear at the shaking of a leaf. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that glorious? That's absolutely
spot on. God sends terror into the hearts
of the Syrians so that these four leprous men wander in, eat
their fill, and then say, wait a minute, we should probably
tell the king about this. And then the king, of course,
supposes that it's an ambush by Syria, verse 12, and the servant
says, wait, we have nothing to lose. Let's take the five remaining
horses, let's recon the situation, and let's go get it. And that's
precisely what happens, and the chapter ends with the fulfillment
of God's word in verses 16 to 20. Then the people went out
and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a sea of fine flour
was sold for a shekel, and two seas of barley for a shekel,
according to the word of the Lord. So chapter 7, verse 1 is
fulfilled. Now that just leaves chapter
7 verse 2. Is that going to be fulfilled?
Verse 17. Now the king had appointed the
officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But
the people trampled him in the gate, and he died just as the
man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king.
You see the emphasis? You see what the prophet wants
us to know or what the author wants us to know throughout 1
and 2 Kings, throughout 1 and 2 Samuel, throughout Joshua,
throughout Judges, throughout all of the books of the Bible?
It's the word of the Lord that's primary. And then in verse 18,
it happened just as the man of God who had spoken to the king
saying, two seals of barley for a shekel, a seal of fine flour
for a shekel shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of
Samaria. Then that officer had answered
the man of God and said, now look, if the Lord would make
windows in heaven, could such a thing be? And he had said,
in fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not
eat of it. And so it happened to him, for the people trampled
him in the gate, and he died." Davis says these verses, 16,
17, and 18, hammer home the veracity of Yahweh's word through the
prophet. Three times we are told. The
new crisis came about according to the word of Yahweh. Verse
16. The officer died as the man of God had spoken. Verse 17.
So it came about according to the word of the man of God. Verse
18. True, that word had contradicted all appearances and stood opposed
to the most likely human projections. But it would prove true because
Yahweh had spoken. See, that's one of the main emphases
of this chapter. Yes, it displays the sovereignty
of God, the power of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God,
delivering His people from the hand of the Syrians, but the
author wants us to listen to the Word of God. He wants us
to take heed to the Word of God. He wants us to take the promises
of God as we receive them. Well, in conclusion, I think
just that brief survey concerning the desperate conditions show
us the consequences of covenantal infidelity. The curses of Leviticus
26 and Deuteronomy 28 are indeed visited upon an idolatrous nation. They were supposed to go into
the land, they were to dispossess the land of the Canaanites and
they were to make this holy community, and they were to mediate the
blessings of Yahweh to the peoples around them. That was the expressed
purpose in Deuteronomy chapter 4. They were to be a city set
on a hill. They were to radiate the blessings
of God to the peoples around them. So they were to go into
the land, dispossess the land of the Canaanites, but rather
they went into the land and they became the Canaanites. They took
on the Canaanite culture, they took on the Canaanite characteristics,
they took on the Canaanite deities, they abandoned Yahweh, and therefore
God brought judgment upon them. You can never say, well, you
know, it's just unfair that God sent Israel into the land of
Canaan to conquer them and to dispossess the land of the Canaanites.
No, it's just. It's righteous. Because when
Israel acts like Canaanites, God dispossesses them from the
land. It's not capriciousness. It's
not arbitrary. It is justice according to the
moral government that God has instituted in his world. Secondly, we ought to appreciate,
in a negative way I guess, the folly of the king of Israel. The king is impatient with the
prophetic word of Elisha, supposing that Elisha did tell him to repent. Verse 30 again, the sackcloth
that he's wearing in chapter 6 does seem to indicate that
Elisha probably had some dealings with him and said the way to
navigate through this present crisis is not to continue in
your sin. It's not to continue to perpetuate
idolatry. It's not to continue to perpetuate
evil and wickedness. So we see that he is impatient
with the prophetic word. The king resorts to blaming Elisha. I mean, verse 31 is completely
unwarranted. There's no reason whatsoever
the king of Israel should have blamed Elisha, the son of Shaphat,
and threatened to take his head off. Certainly, the king demonstrates
his folly in blaming God, or essentially saying, I'm not going
to wait for Yahweh any further. This calamity has come from Him.
I'm not going to submit to Him. I'm not going to repent toward
Him. I'm not going to deal favorably
with His people or with His prophet. I'm going to continue in my wickedness.
And the king obviously refuses to believe the prophetic word
in chapter 7, verse 12. Again, contrary to hope, in hope
Abraham believed. Brethren, at times we're given
instructions in scripture that seem to be a bit difficult, but
if we are faithful, if we are believing, we ought to take those
things and appropriate them by faith. Now, having looked at
the folly of the King of Israel, I want to do a sub-point here
on the folly of trusting in the King of Israel, or the Prime
Minister of Canada, or the President of the United States. Now, I'm
not suggesting that we are not civic-minded people. We ought
to pray for our governing authorities, we ought to vote responsibly,
we ought to be good citizens. Any body politic should profit
and prosper as a result of the Christian population. Christians
ought to exercise a good influence in their societies by being responsible
people, by being persons that are aware, that are prayerful,
and are those who indeed seek the peace of the city where they
live. That's one of the the lessons
to the exiles in Jeremiah 29 11. However, in North America
there seems to be this government will deliver us from all evil
mentality. The government has stepped in
and tries to cater to people from the cradle to the grave
and the people like it so. The people wanted so. In fact,
very often our first recourse is, what will the government
do for me? How will the government deal
with this situation? How will the government fix this?
Davis makes the observation. He says, surely the major impression
we receive from this section, the chapter, or chapter six,
where it shows the severity of the conditions in Israel at the
time, and the woman crying out to the king for help and aid.
The king can't help. The king can't do anything. Davis
says, surely the major impression we receive from this section
is that of political helplessness. As James Mead says, this narrative
makes an argument about the ineffectiveness of royal power in a situation
that only Yahweh can reverse. Again, it's not saying we never
receive any help from the government, we cut up our child tax benefit
checks every month and burn them. I'm not saying that. But brethren,
our first recourse always ought to be to Yahweh, isn't it? Why
is it, what will Trudeau do for me? Lord God, please help me,
deliver us. Davis goes on to say, the government
simply can't find a solution. Certainly it's obvious here in
the siege of Samaria. Thankfully, under God, we haven't
faced such a situation. Chilliwack hasn't been besieged. We haven't been hedged in by,
you know, upset Abbotsfordians. who are stopping the water supply
and stopping the food supply. We're not eating donkey head
for dinner and pigeon droppings for lunch. Praise God that hasn't
happened. Notice he goes on to say, and
yet aren't many of us in the West sucked into thinking that
our governments are somehow a big chunk of our hope? There is no
solid hope in politics. Again, I know Davis well enough
to say he would not say, don't vote, don't pray for your government,
don't be a good citizen. He's not saying that. But he's
dealing with the mindset that is so easily imbibed in North
America. It's the handout. Give us, help
us, free us, deliver us. Brethren, if we're looking to
Trudeau to do that instead of God Almighty, we're always going
to be frustrated people. Just like this woman who was
frustrated because they ate her child one day and they weren't
going to be able to eat the other child the next day. She holds
out her hand to the king. What does he say? I got nothing
for you. The threshing floor is dry. The wine press is dry.
I can't help you. There is no hope in politics. We must beware of the subtle
idolatry that whispers, the government must cope with this. The text implies that governments
don't cope very well. If a government ensures a degree
of justice and civil order, and if graft and dishonesty are not
totally rampant in it, that is probably as much as we can rightly
expect. That's a pretty good observation.
We must drop anchor in Psalm 146, 3-6. And just to remind
you, that says, "...do not put your trust in princes, nor in
a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs,
he returns to his earth, and that very day his plans perish.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope
is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, who keeps truth forever." And again, I
understand God at times sends blessing even through civil government. So please understand the qualifications
that I'm administering. I am not saying don't ever receive
anything from the government. God may very well be funneling
blessing to you through that government. But your hope must
be in God. Your hope must be in Yahweh,
not in the Conservative Party. Certainly not in the New Democratic
Party and not in the Liberal Party. You cannot look for them
to provide for you from cradle to grave. That is the job of
Jehovah, and He willingly undertakes for you. Davis goes on to say,
the first words in Calvin's Sunday morning liturgy are the constant
corrective we need. Quote, our help is in the name
of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Psalm 124 verse 8. I think this chapter, at least
this section in chapter 6, demonstrates the futility of looking to the
government to bail us out for every jot and tittle of our lives. There are jobs that are too big
for the federal government. There are jobs too big for any
man to undertake. But God the Lord is there for
his people. God the Lord sends four lepers
and a servant to be the means of deliverance. Now, again, he
paved the way by confounding the Syrian army and terrorizing
them so that they fled in fear of their lives. But the Lord
God is our hope. The Lord God is our hope. is
our helper. And then finally, with reference
to the providence of God, His prophetic mouthpiece in Elisha,
the unlikely deliverers in the four lepers, the confusion of
the Syrians, and the wise servant with a good plan. I suppose if
you and I were God, we would have dropped army tanks and choppers
and bombers out to send aid to Israel in order to beat back
the Syrians. And probably would have dropped
big boxes of rations and food and whatnot. God sends four lepers
and a servant with a good plan to deliver his people. Davis
on this leper connection says, the discovery of God's work is
placed in the hands of the unclean and unnamed. Surely we feel this
text grabbing us by the lapels and pulling us down to kneel
in praise. Here Yahweh uses neither the
healthy nor the prominent. Doesn't God deserve high praise
for the lowly servants He uses? And I said that was it, but I
would be remiss not to add one final allegorical thought concerning
verse 9 in chapter 7. I didn't see this in any commentators,
so don't take this to the bank, but I just had an allegorical
thought. That's my own musings on verse 9. We could learn a
lot from these lepers. We are not doing right. This
day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. We as the church
have received the benefit and blessing of the good news. We
mustn't remain silent. We need to go tell every household
we can find that Jesus Christ is Lord and Jesus Christ saves
to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through Him. Well,
let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word and for Your power and Your majesty and Your glory
displayed in 2 Kings 6 and 7. We thank You that You use very
unlikely means, unclean men, unnamed servants, to accomplish
Your purposes for the deliverance of Your people. We ask that You
would increase our faith, increase our hope, increase our confidence
in the Word of God Most High. knowing that you have never let
your people down, you have never failed your people, you never
leave us, you never forsake us, you have promised to be our God
from cradle to grave. Give us grace and hope and strength
to walk in obedience to you and continue to watch over us. And
let us learn the lesson from these lepers. We have tasted
the good news of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Help us not
to remain silent, but help us to publish it abroad. And we
pray through Christ the Lord. Amen.
