Sermon Tone Analysis

Text:    2 Kings 7:3-9

*I.           **The Desperation *

*3** *And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

*4** *If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also.

Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

*II.

**The Discovery*

*5** *And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

*6** *For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.

*7** *Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

*8** *And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

*III.

**The Duty*

*9** *Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.

*Subject:* Why sit here and Die?

*Introduction:* it is a fact that death has its sting; and everybody wants to go to heaven but, nobody wants to die.

Everybody has a desire to live.

And those of us who deal with the pain of daily living, can somehow, see through our pain that it is better to be in pain and learn to live with the pain, than to be viewed by many and be dead.

And since death is an inevitable appointment that cannot be canceled, we’ve got the rest of our lives to live and a sure appointed time to die.

And since we cannot escape this appointment, let us live while we can and die when we can’t help it.

The Book of II Kings:

25 Chapters:

This book opens with translation of Elijah to heaven, and closes with the transportation of the Captive Jews to Babylon.

In chapter 17, we find that Northern of Israel going into Assyrian captivity from which they have never since, returned; while in the 25th chapter, we find Jerusalem sacked, the Temple burnt, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah going into Babylonian Captivity.

The two captivities together are spoken of as the Dispersion.

I Samuel is the book of transition – from Theocracy to Monarchy.

II Samuel is the book of David’s reign.

I kings is the book of Disruption- when the Kingdom is divided but, II Kings is to be remembered as the book of the dispersion.

·       *Chapter one: **Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab the king *

·       *Chapter two: *Elijah is taken to heaven, but before he is taken, Elisha gets an answer to his prayer and his request is honored when the mantle of Elijah is passed on to Elisha…

·       In other words, God is always in control but, the hand that used in the anointing has changed.

·       *Chapter three: *Jehoram the son of Ahab reigns over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for 12 years but, he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

But, not as his father and his mother had done, for Ahab had torn down the image of Baal that his father had built.

·       *Chapter four: *The Widow’s Oil is multiplied, and the Shunammite’s son is restored to life, at verse 38, there’s death in the pot, at verse 42, Elisha feeds one hundred men with twenty loaves of Barley and full ears of corn.

·       *Chapter five: *Naaman is healed of Leprosy*  *

·       *Chapter six: *There is the miracle of the floating Ax head, and later there is famine in Samaria.*

*

But in Chapter seven, verse three; you will discover four leprous men at the gate of the city: they were sick and diseased stricken.

By law, if they came within ten feet of another person, they were to cry unclean, unclean, which tells me; not only had they lost their connection with society but also, they had been abandoned, and isolated.

But, according to their story, they never lost their faith.

So then, here they are weighing their options in discussion of their demise, their destruction or their end; we have sickness in our bodies, and the end of this is death.

There’s an enemy in the city, and if we go into the city we die.

If the enemy does not Kill us, then, there is a Famine in Samaria and we will starve to death, And if we sit here, we will die.

So then, since we are destined to die anyway, let us die on the way.

Cognitive psychology speaks of a theory or psychological tool that is used to compare how we are known to ourselves, how we are known to others, how others know us, and how we cover who we are with the option of showing ourselves to others.

This theory has been called, “Johari’s window; it was created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham but, it was first used or employed as a theory of personality by Carl Jung.

Charles Handy calls this concept Johari’s house, and he says the house has four rooms:

·       Room 1 is the part of ourselves that we see and others see.

·       Room 2 is the aspect that others see but we are not aware of.

·       Room 3 is our private space, which we know but keep from others.

·       Room 4 is the most mysterious room in that the unconscious or subconscious bit of us is seen by neither ourselves nor others.

·       In other words, Room one, is called the *Arena* – the part we see and others see.

·       The *blind spot *is known to others but, not known to ourselves.

·       The *facade – *not known to others unless, we choose to reveal it ourselves.

·       The *unknown *is not known to others, neither is it known to ourselves.

“I do not know how Long it will be or what the future holds for me…”

 

 

These lepers had heard about the enemy and the famine in the city, yet they had faith persevere and press toward the city.

But the bible says that after the 5th verse of the Text first, in their *discovery,* they had to get up.

In their *Disaster,* they had been diagnosed with a terminal disease; but in their *discovery,* they got up and began to move toward the city…and when they got there, they discovered that that the enemy had fled.

But, after the victory, they had a duty to tell somebody.

·       Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist, were Nazarites unto the Lord and the Nazarite was not to touch a dead person.

·       Jesus ran up on a Dead tree at Matthew 11:13…

·