Satisfied in the Siege

Psalm 103:1–5 ESV

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Don’t you love that passage? What a statement!

The Lord forgives ALL your iniquity.

The Lord heals ALL your diseases.

He redeems your life from the pit.

And after pulling you out of that disgusting, shameful pit, he CROWNS you.

In his love and mercy, he chooses to honor you rather than shame you!

He satisfies you with good, so that your strength is renewed like the eagles?

What an image.

Picture that eagle, with those mighty wings, soaring high in the sky.

With his keen eyesight, he spots his prey hundreds of feet away.

Then he swoops down with such speed to reach his target.

He almost never misses.

What an image of strength, beauty, and intelligence!

Who is ready to claim this verse today in your life?

Who wants see God move in your lives like never before?

God wants to bring good things into your life.

I’m not talking about becoming rich, or making a shopping list of exactly what God needs to provide in order for you to be happy.

I’m talking about a good God who brings an abundance of what you need so that you are satisfied.

The question is, when God DOES provide, what do we do with it?

Sometimes, when God has blessed us, we lose our perspective.

We get used to the abundance, and fail to appreciate that God provided.

We start to think that we somehow deserve this windfall.

We become greedy, and think that we need more, rather than being satisfied.

And so, like God did with the exiles that we discussed last month, God withdraws his hand of blessing and allows us to go through a period of difficulty.

This is not to say that every difficulty you experience is because you sinned.

We live in an imperfect world, where bad things happen to even the godly.

But God uses these times to refine us and help us see what’s really important.

In the book of 2 Kings, chapters 6 and 7, we read about how the nation of Israel was being attacked by the king of Syria.

By this time, Israel and Judah had already split into two kingdoms.

Israel had allowed idolatry to be practiced, and the people turned their hearts from God.

So God was keeping his covenant to withdraw his protection from Israel until they returned to him.

Elisha the prophet was constantly telling the king that Israel needed to return to faithfulness to God so that God would help them.

But the king was stubborn and arrogant.

Samaria was the capital city of Israel.

Syria had besieged Samaria, determined to starve the people to death if they didn’t surrender.

The Samaritan people were resorting to cannibalism to survive! (2 Kings 6:28-29)

What is the king’s response to this? Blame the prophet!

He sends his personal officer to go kill Elisha.

Elisha prophesized that they would see an abundance of food in Samaria within 24 hours.

The king’s office scoffs at this.

But God is faithful. He kept the word that he gave to Elisha.

Picture this: the ENTIRE Syrian army is camped around the city of Samaria.

How many men must that be?

With all the resources necessary to feed that large army?

Plus whatever riches they had plundered along the way.

2 Kings 7:3–11 ESV

Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.” So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were.” Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king’s household.

On the very night after Elisha had prophesied about Samaria’s blessing, God caused the Syrian army to hear the sounds of chariots and horses approaching.

They thought the king of Israel had gotten a messenger through to some of the neighboring countries, and that they were coming to help.

But in chapter 5 of 2 Kings, when the Syrian king sent an army to capture Elisha, remember what Elisha and his servant saw surrounding the Syrian army?

I believe that same angelic army was what the Syrians heard that night.

A great fear fell on them, and they ran away, leaving EVERYTHING behind them!

Talk about enough food to feed an army—how about the ENTIRE army!

And who did God use as messengers of his provision?

Lepers—outcasts.

Because of their skin disease, they had been cast out of the city.

They were considered the walking dead.

They weren’t even worth the enemy army bothering with them.

But if it wasn’t for their disease, nobody would have found the abandoned army camps.

The Israelite army was hiding safely inside the walls.

Nobody would have been taking a good look to notice that there weren’t soldiers.

Even if they did notice, they would have probably waited a few days to be brave enough to send spies.

But this leprosy, that made these men so despised by their family and friends, caused them to be exactly where they needed to be to find God’s provision.

Folks, you might feel like you are cursed right now.

You might feel like God has turned his back on you.

You might be like these lepers, who only had other lepers to hang out with and who had to depend on whatever scraps they could find to survive.

But maybe, just maybe, God is using this affliction in your life to do something greater down the road.

Not just for you.

For everyone around you.

When these lepers found all the abandoned food and treasure, they started hoarding it.

Finder’s keepers, right?

After all their suffering, they deserved a little kick-back, don’t you think?

But they quickly realized that they were wrong.

God doesn’t just want one person to have it all.

He wants ALL his children to be satisfied—to have what they need.

So those four lepers went and reported what they found to the king.

And it became exactly how Elisha described it 24 hours earlier.

There was so much food, it was being sold cheaply.

Everyone was able to eat to their fill.

But for the officer who scoffed at Elisha, it didn’t go so well.

Remember how Elisha told the officer that he would see the provision, but would not touch any of it.?

2 Kings 7:17 ESV

Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him.

This man thought he was so special because he was literally the king’s right-hand officer.

But titles and position mean nothing when you are trying to keep starving people away from a huge pile of food!

He was trampled to death trying to keep the people away from what God had given them.

I don’t know what you are going through right now, but God has his hand on you.

God wants to take care of his people.

He knows exactly what we need.

Sometimes it to be pampered a bit and doted on.

We all need to feel affirmed that way from time to time.

Sometimes it’s a good kick in the pants.

You know we all need that too sometimes.

And sometimes, it’s just being held when the world around us is falling apart.

But he always provides for us, if we will put our trust in him.

Even if you feel like you’re cursed, God has not abandoned you.

Just think about those lepers.

For all they endured—the rejection, the pain—they were the heroes of this story.

God used their affliction to put them exactly where they needed to be to save their countrymen.

If you will let him, God will use your situation right now to bless you later and, more importantly, to bless others.

Maybe even save their lives.

And if you think you are in a good place, take care that you don’t become arrogant like the king’s officer.

He thought he had things all figured out.

He dared to scoff at the promise God had given the prophet.

He mocked God, and he paid the price.

So think of the situation you are in right now.

Do you like your situation?

Do you wish it would change?

Maybe you should quit trying to change your situation or make it work in your favor, and just ask God what he wants you to do in this situation.

I believe that God wants to use you right where you are to be a source of blessing.

When you quit waiting to be blessed, and just seek to bless, God will give you what you need.

You will be satisfied with good things, so that your strength is renewed like the eagle’s.