When God Talks

1 Samuel 14:6-16 He can make two men, like Jonathan and his armour-bearer, victorious over a multitude. “A thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one,” if God so wills it.

In this case, God uses a noise and four lepers to accomplish His purposes.

There was no natural explanation.

Thinking that a hired army was coming upon them, the Syrians fled, leaving wealth and food in the camp. With God nothing is impossible. Nothing is even hard. He has innumerable resources.

When God Speaks Do We Listen?https://youtu.be/2MXqb1a3Apg

When the LORD speaks, do we listen? Hypothetically, What if I were an Old Testament prophet of God and I told you that within 24 hours that we would be better than pre-Biden administration prices? All interest rates were back to less than 3%. Food and gas cheaper than it ever has been; and nobody in the US would be hungry? Is it impossible? Can God do it? How do we respond to the news?

My question throughout this whole study is: What is God doing in this narrative?

If you were part of a small group of people who discovered that this change was happening; would you tell anyone? Or would you try to keep that kind of windfall under wraps? If so, why would you do that? And what effect would that really have on your life?

Now, say you are leader of this people…how do you respond to these very fast moving changes that seemingly are out of control? Do you now trust God that what He says is true; or do you trust your mistrust?

Finally, do the crowds listen? What implications does the narrative have on the lives of the hungry masses? The spiritually hungry?

Did the King’s Right Hand Man Listen

How did the Kings right hand man respond?

How does the opposition to God’s works look today? Probably, if the king’s right hand man had stated his reasons to the people, he would have got a hundred to agree with him for every one who believed Elisha. Certainly, the circumstances could not have changed so quickly. “Even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven” this isn’t going to happen. No doubt they all looked upon Elisha as a fanatic.

And yet it turned out to be one of those many cases in which “God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty.”

“Unbelief can be very plausible. Unbelief nearly always appears to have reason on its side. There is not a doctrine of the Bible against which the most plausible arguments might not, and have not, been advanced. Even Scripture itself can be quoted in support of unbelief and sin. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” Good arguments are not necessarily a proof of the truth or justice of a case.”

“The impossibilities of to-day turn out to be the possibilities of to-morrow. It is well to remember this, that, because we are unable to conceive of something taking place, it does not therefore follow that it is impossible. The fact is, that when we say anything is “impossible,” we just mean that we cannot conceive it. But, as has already been shown, this is no reason why a doctrine or statement may not be true, or why a certain occurrence may not take place. We may have never known anything of the kind to occur before; but that is no proof that a thing is impossible, though in the minds of many people it is the only argument. What has never occurred before, may occur yet.”

The promise he was given was: “You will in fact see it with your own eyes, but you won’t eat any of it.” God’s word stands sure; it comes to pass in due time; but the intellectualist, the scoffer, the doubter, the man who was too wise to believe, finds himself shut out from participation in the blessing.

His death stands as a testimony of the truthfulness of God’s word through the prophet. It also reminds the book’s readers to believe God’s word, hope in God’s provision, and count on God’s deliverance.

In all of his incredulous ridicule of God’s actions and words, this man ends up trampled by a group of people who are going to see what God had accomplished.

Did the Lepers Listen

How did the lepers respond? Generally, they responded in self preservation and selfishness.

Here, they either had an opportunity to be affected by the lesson of trusting God OR fall deeper into their own selfishness? Do we as God’s people have those kinds of decisions to make?

With good reasoning, the four lepers decided it was better to eat as prisoners (or die quickly) than to starve in freedom.

While their countrymen in the city were perishing of hunger, mothers eating their children, and the like, while they employed hour after hour in collecting and hiding away their booty. No feeling of shame restrains them—it does not seem even to occur to them that there is any disgrace in desertion. When doubt begins to stir in their minds, it is not conscience that awakens, or regard for their fellow-citizens that moves them, but mere consideration for their own interests—“If we tarry till the morning light, we shall find punishment” They were more self-centered than concerned for others.

Here are four poor men, severely afflicted by a malady …. whom we should have expected to find humbled and softened by it, more God-fearing, more tender and compassionate towards their fellow-men, than the generality. But the reverse is the case with them. Surely, they had heard how Elisha preached a miraculous deliverance, and urged the king not to surrender the city, but “wait for Jehovah” (ch. 6:33). Yet of deliverance they have not the slightest expectation; they are as unbelieving as the King’s right hand man.

Doing the wrong thing would not only affect their bodies (as they were hungry and sick) but also affect their morality and soul. One commentator said, “Sin, like the leprosy, shuts out the soul beyond the gate. Every way and all around, nothing in ourselves can bring help. Spiritual death by famine, or the sword, must terminate the sinner’s course, if he sits down contented in that state.”

There is symbolism in the phrase, “outside the gate”. Jesus’ suffering outside the city gate symbolized not only the curse He bore as our sin-bearer, but also His rejection by the Jewish religious establishment and its leaders.

Jesus was crucified “outside the gate” as ‘unclean’ just as these lepers were sitting “outside the gate;” which is exactly where they should have been made clean by the blood of Jesus. Yet they allowed their afflictions to push themselves away from God. Psalms 66:16 says, Come and listen, all who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for me.

Does God not bring restoration and redemption? Certainly, if we are afflicted, “we shall get no good from them unless we receive them in a right spirit; i.e. submissively, resignedly, even gratefully, as intended to benefit us. That, if we extract not from them the sweet uses for which they were meant, we shall be apt to get from them irreparable harm—the irreparable harm of a lowering of our moral tone, and an alienation of our souls from their Creator.”

We can surely see how these lepers “outside the camp” may feel or how they are affected. Are there ideological, philosophical, religious or theological parallels to these conditions in our society? Do we, who are “inside the camp” ensure that the ones around us who may be “outside the camp” hear about the gospel.

Did the King Listen?

How the King respond?

The suspicious disposition of the king accords with his general character. It has been noticed that Jehoram presents himself throughout the history as a man of moody, changeful, unreliable nature. It is shown by the present instance how a suspicious, distrustful disposition often outwits itself.

Not unreasonable; but unseasonable.

Jehoram, knowing of no reason for the flight of the Syrians, suspected a not uncommon strategy. He supposed that the enemy had merely gone a little way from their camp, and placed an ambush.

Had the King’s attitude to God’s promise, as conveyed through Elisha, been one of faith, he would at once have recognized that this which was told him was its fulfilment. He would have remembered Elisha’s word; he would have perceived how precisely this report fitted into it; he would at least, before dismissing the lepers’ story, have felt it his duty to consult Elisha, and ask him for his guidance.

Just like the King, men are sanguine and over-confident when it would have been well to suspect, suspicious and over-circumspect when there is no need of doubt or circumspection. God calls them to the kingdom that he has prepared for men, and says, “come, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa. 55:1); and they hang back, hesitate, delay, as if they were about to be entrapped.

One may wonder if he recognized his mistake later?

Does our failure to expect what God is doing cause us to miss what He is graciously doing in our lives? Are we like the King who knew how little he merited mercy from the Lord, and therefore he could not be led to hope, even though God speaks through His Word that we will be delivered? Jesus sweetly, graciously, tenderly, tells us, that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. But unbelief robs Jesus of his glory, and our souls of their happiness. And thus, like the poor king of Israel, to the very last we know not how to give the Lord the credit of his free grace and salvation!

Did the Crowd Listen?

Just like in Elisha’s time, there is an undefined crowd out there that gets mixed and popular messages. How did they respond? Obviously, they were hungry and when they received the news, they “followed the crowd” .... right out the gate and right over the King’s right hand man. He heard the good news, he saw the proof of the message, but he died before he could enjoy it.

Will the crowd become ‘children of God?’ Do they deserve the help of God? Whatever help we receive is utterly undeserved; just as we received mercy, so can they. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.” The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love. Ps 103:8.

The offer of salvation is made to every one.

Did Elisha Listen?

How Elisha listens and responds: Many times we are fooled into thinking that it is the job of the mentor to pursue the protégé, but this biblical account reveals that Elisha's success was found in the protégé's relentless pursuit of his mentor. In other words, it wasn’t that Elisha was the leader of the people; it was God who was the leader!

Being under the tutelage of another can be difficult. At times we are asked to do hard things just like Elisha was; yet he did what God instructed him to do.

Related Media

Related Sermons