Sermon Tone Analysis

*Title: Grace for Beggars *

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*Context: The relief from the famine at Jerusalem*

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*Text: 2 Kings 6:24- 2 Kings : 7-20*

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*@ Nelson Road on 16th March 2008*

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*Introduction *

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A couple of weeks ago I sat watching the news….and

saw the bombing on Palestine by the Israelis….bodies

where everywhere….it

was hard for me to take it in….it

was *desperate situation* …words failed me!

 

Sadly lots of things within our world cause us to feel the same thing….hopeless

and desperate and longing a solution

 

Weather it is the state of the planet, the lack of NHS dentists, the rising price of petrol, the fact the young people today just can’t afford to leave home these days, something’s just leave you with a feeling of desperation   

 

What are we face with in these verses is another disparate situation….really

disparate….with

no hope in sight ….lets see what happens    

 

*A) Desperate situation *

 

We might be inclined to explain the Syrian siege as some­thing that just happened, *but it was much more than that*.

Cen­turies earlier Moses had warned the people of Israel of certain calamities that would most surely *follow disobedience* to the commandments of God.

 

*One of these calamities was that for­eign armies would lay siege to their cities* (Deut.

28:53-57).

The people of Elisha's day had been anything* but obedient *

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They had flaunted God laws and had gone after idols, and *now they were reaping the consequences*.

The God who is *always faithful to his word* had allowed the Syrians to surround Samaria.

The Syrian presence there was, then, *the message of God's judgement.*

The cost of food reflects part of this desperation….

the famine was so severe that food profiteers were asking scandalous black market prices for the *most disgusting dishes.*

The most revolting *garbage* was worth it*s weight in gold.*

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Even though a donkey was considered unclean for human consumption and the animals head the most disgusting cut of meat for eating, a donkey’s head was still being sold for approximately £80

 

Although various explanations have been given for the “*dove droppings/”/*/ /in verse 25 whatever it was, it was another *very unappetizing food*, and a quarter of gallon of it cost £5.

And as the average wage was about £10 a month you can see how desperate they where

 

How hopeless there situation was

 

But the human cost eclipses even the panic for food, mothers were ready to eat there own children.

Cannibalism is not unknown in the Old Testament, but the horror of the situation in Samaria reaches its deepest level here.

Here we have a depiction of those who appear to be utterly oblivious to God's judgement and who with a self-reliant atti­tude resort *to desperate measures just to sustain life upon this earth.*

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Ethics are right out of the window here!

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How many even today are happy to go down this route

 

When they are so taken up are they with the here and now, and the maintaining of it at all costs*, that they never allow their thoughts to rise above those basics needs to God and the hereafter.*

The king himself depicts for us yet another response to God's judgement.

*His was that of defiance.*

The statement that he was wearing sackcloth under his royal robe might at first encourage us to believe that he carried a soft and tender heart towards God and a genuine sorrow for the idolatry of his nation.

*The author soon strips this hope from us*.

The king's pledge to behead the prophet Elisha shows that *he was anything but repentant*

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He knew the city was under siege because Elisha's God had decreed it, and he would now show his defiance of God by killing the prophet.

The response of Israel's king, Jehoram, *is also very much with us today.*

It is the response of all those who essentially hate God and take that hatred out on God's people.

Let a preacher declare the holiness and justice of God against sin­ners and the certain calamity that awaits them if they do not repent, and the Jehorams of our day become angry.

They may be content to ridicule him or merely to stay away from him.

They may seek to have him fired.

Or they may even threaten him with physical harm as the king did Elisha.

We see this today don’t we in some the laws that the government are trying to pass, to stop us proclaiming the absolute truth of the Gospel of Jesus….that

mankind is in a mess and needs to change ….and we can’t do this in are own strength ….the world does not want to here this message…and tries to stop it being heard

 

The king hearing the message of the women was driven over the edge….and

his response was to do away with Elisha….*not

repentance*…*not looking within*….but

a desire to hurt someone….for

the situation he and his nation found themselves in

 

Proving one again the truth that hurt people hurt people!

I see this again with our world…we lament the situation with many of our young people…but don’t ask why….what

have we done to get to this situation…how our liberal views on marriage and sex  have open up the doors for what we see today!

 

*We just want to blame someone else!*

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*B) An Amazing answer to the problem!

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But those who ignore God's judgement it as the women did, or defy it as the king did, will eventually find themselves facing it in its full force

 

Once more, Elisha’s supernatural knowledge allowed him to predict the coming of the king’s executioner

 

I love the line here *but Elisha was sitting in his house*….God is in control….its

ok!

We don’t see Him jumping up and running around….he was sitting…he was at peace he knew what happening and he knew the solution…because he was in constant contact with his God….if

you like he knew Gods word….he

knew what was up too and therefore he responded in a control thoughtful way

 

Shut the door….lets

be sensible know!

We see the same in the life of Jesus he knew who was he knew what his Father was up too… and was willing to walk the path his father had chosen for him in a thoughtful sensible, controlled way…not panicking…but setting his heart on the things of God and allowing them to dictate his reactions         

 

He didn’t let the circumstance dictate the his reactions but his knowledge of the word of God

 

Surely the major impression we receive from this section is that of *political helplessness.*

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As James Mead says, 'This narrative makes an argument about the ineffectiveness of royal power/ /in a situation that only *Yahweh can reverse*.

The government *simply can't find a solution.*

And yet aren't many of us in the West sucked into thinking that our governments are somehow a big chunk of our hope?

Or as James Kirk puts it….we can only hope for 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.

We must drop anchor in Psalm 146:3-6.

The first words in Calvin's Sunday morning liturgy are the constant corrective we need: *'Our help* *is in the name of the lord, who made heaven and earth' (Ps.

124:8).*

Surely the bottom line here is this world is in a desperate situation because of our rebellion against God and his will for our lives …..In the same way Israel’s rebellion against God had brought about this desperate situation.

We sacrifice our children on the altar of pride and worldliness

 

We try to find answers to our situation without the least reference to God

 

And we tell those who question our views to be quite and leave us alone in our rebellion

 

There is an answer but not the one most people are looking for!

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It seems clear that the statement in verse 33 came from the king although the kings servant may well of repeated it , “*Surely this calamity is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?*

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That although*/ /*these are words of despair, that they may also contain a flickering glimmer of hope.

Is there any reason to wait on the Lord before I surrender the city to the enemy, I really hope there is but….but

….how is it going to happen….I just can’t see it!

And this cry of anguish is answered by the message of hope delivered by Elisha in the next chapter.

The king’s question reminds us again of the words of another prophet, “*Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Is.

40:31).*

It is sometime tough but sometimes the only way we learn the lessons we need to is as we go through hard times!

Israel needed to learn about grace as well as judgement but it had to be in God’s time and in Gods way!

 

Elisha brought the blustering questions of the king up short with a wonderful message of hope and grace.

*The Syrian-induced famine would abruptly end, and the very next day*

 

Elisha was not promising cheap food but relief from the siege; he was saying that things would begin to return to normal.

Eight litres of fine flour would still costs approximately one month's wages.

According to Babylonian sources, a shekel of silver would ordinarily buy about 50 litres of barley, but here it buys 4 litres.

So Elisha was not predicting cut-rate groceries but relative relief, which would seem substantial when compared to the current situation

 

*Simply the fact that there /was /barley instead of dove's dung is a vast improvement.*

This is all about mercy….there