Responding to Crisis: Curse God or Cling? 2 Kings 6:24-7:20

Responding to Crisis: Curse God or Cling?

INTRODUCTION

TURN TO 2 Kings 6:24

Well, this has been quite a week, hasn’t it? Last Sunday it was pouring with rain and it just didn’t stop. In fact, by the time it eventually did stop - we had a lake where half of our city is supposed to be - two of our own families have been evacuated from their homes, others of you are watching online because there is no way for you to get here today - the highways and roads that function like arteries, connecting the body of this province together - have been broken and you’ve been cut off from people you love, cut off from work, cut off from food, in some cases. You went to the store to find empty refrigerators where the milk is supposed to be. One person managed to find a couple of 4 litre jugs of milk at a small store - and showed the receipt: He spent $32 - $16 per jug! Meanwhile, there’s very likely somebody in the city who filled the bathtub up and had a bath in milk today - they bought up as much as they could fit in their trunk, only to realize after the fact that there’s an expiry date and there’s no way they can drink it all.

We’ve learned a lesson in inflation - when times are uncertain and the supplies are in more demand - the price goes up.

How much more when there is a seige around your city that has choked every supply route in and every exit out. Samaria’s situation reminds of Post WW1 Germany where it took a wheelbarrow full of cash to buy a single loaf of bread, or to the inflation that has been going on in Venezuela, where inflation, since 2016 has been 53.8 MILLION percent and a 5 pound chicken, in 2018, cost 14.6 million Bolivars. Those are some expensive McNuggets.

In our text, Ben-Hadad has gathered all of his forces together and the entire Syrian army has stormed across the international border, stomped through Israel’s sovereign territory and headed straight for the Northern Kingdom’s capital city of Samaria. This is full-scale war.

The strategy is brilliant: Surround the most important city, the home of the king - choke it to death - and the rest of the nation will collapse. Crush the head and the snake will die.

Today’s text is so timely for us. We join the people of Israel in a time of crisis. And the focus of our passage is on the question: How do you respond to crisis? You have one of two options - you can CURSE GOD … or, you can CLING. As we make our way through the text - I want you to think about your response. Crisis is coming to your life - whether it’s this week or next year. So how will you respond?

READ 6:24-29

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1 A DEVASTATING SEIGE, 6:24-29

Of course the success of a seige increases with the amount of time it lasts. When the enemy first surrounds your city - you tense up, anxiety rises, you see the spears and shields, glistening in the sunlight - you wait for the army that clearly intends your destruction - you wait for the soldiers to storm your walls and break down your gates. So, when you see them set up their camp, only to stay in it - cook food and take off their armour … at first you relax a little bit. As long as they stay ‘OUT THERE’ and you are safely behind the protective barriers, ‘IN HERE’ - well, it may hinder your travel plans, but you feel a litte bit ‘safe’.

For the first few days. But as day turns into week, which turns into another week, which turns into month - you have eaten your fridge empty and there is no more produce on the shelves of the grocery store - and somebody has gone and hoarded the milk and toilet paper ... (sound familiar) - well then the anxiety rises again.

The cost of everything goes up .... food becomes scarce and even though our text doesn’t tell us exactly how long the seige of the Syrians lasts - you know that it has to be a long time ...

In fact, things became so severe that verse 25 tells us that, there came a point where ‘… a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and a fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.’ Can you believe those prices?! And right now, you’re looking at me with blanks stares. “I have no idea what the going rate is today for a donkey’s head OR a kab of dove’s dung”. “For that matter, I have no idea what a shekel of silver is worth either.”

Well, a shekel of silver would be about the average wage for a labourer for one month’s work. So six and a half years worth of work for all the meat you can dig out of the head of a donkey. Now, if you don’t think of it today as an essential part of a well-balanced 21st century, Western diet - then just know that people in ancient Israel had no more affinity for donkey cheek than we do. It was UNCLEAN to eat, first of all. And second of all - it’s gross. Do you see the kind of food shortage that’s going on right now?

As for dove’s dung - that would be fuel to cook on and there are some scholars who say that we aren’t really talking about dove’s dung - that it was a nickname for carob pods. Okay, well if that makes you feel better, that’s fine - you can make it carob pods, but either way - paying five months wages for 500 ml. pop sized bottle of the stuff - you know times are desperate.

But verses 26-29 make it clear that we haven’t begun to plumb the depths of devastation yet.

The king is walking along the city wall - observing, first hand - the hopelessness of his situation: There, outside the wall - the organized, armoured and overwhelming size of the Syrian army - soldiers in the same stations they have been in for months ...

And … on the inside - the king’s people imprisoned in their own city … starving.

As he walks, lost deep in his own thoughts of misery … a female voice shakes him back into the present. Verse 26, “Help, my lord, O king!”

Well, the king hears the cry for help and instantly thinks: “Food. Here’s another one of his subjects asking him to do the impossible and supply her starving belly with food.”

He answers in voice dripping with sarcasm. Verse 27, “If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?”

“You’ve seen the threshing floor - empty of grain - the winepress is desert dry. Do you think I can do omething that the Lord won’t do for you?”

But it turns out this isn’t just about a lack of food … There are two women in the city - and the starvation has reached such a peak that they make a deal.

“This woman .... said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’”

We did just that. Verse 29, “We boiled my son in a pot - and ate him.” Let that sink in. Mothers who make the decision that the only way for them to survive is to consume the flesh of their children?! Can you ever imagine being so desperate for food that you would go … there?! Reminds me of the movie from the 90s, “Alive” - based on a true story of A rugby team from Uruguay, that crashed in the Andes mountains and in order to survive on an icy mountaintop where there is no food - the survivors decide to eat the flesh of their dead relatives and friends.

… I’ll tell you right now - there is no way I’m eating another person - no matter how hopeless things are - I don’t need to live on this earth that badly. “Jesus, take me home - time for me to go!”

Well the reason the woman in our text is calling out to the king - is that the next day, when it was the turn of the other woman to serve up her child - she hid him and didn’t fulfill her side of the deal. This woman wants justice.

When the king hears this, he reflexively reaches for his robe, grabs hold of the neck and tears it wide open … a classic sign of grief and anguish. And you would do the same thing if you were in his place: Your subjects have descended into cannibalism. When you are a leader - responsible for anything - strip away every other measure of success - the one foundational mark that you have done well - is that you’ve left things better than you found them. Well there’s no way you can say that when you inherited a country that was prospering … and you leave it with people literally eating their own children.

This isn’t just human tragedy - this situation is a case of judgment from God on His people. This N. Kingdom had been unfaithful to God from the beginning - making up their own style of worship and ignoring God’s clear instructions … turning away from worshiping the true God altogether and running after the

The LORD has had enough.

And the people actually shouldn’t be surprised by where they are, because God had promised years ago - that rebellion against Him would bring severe consequences. In fact - Deuteronomy 28:52-53, “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you. (53) And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in athe distress with which your enemies shall distress you.”

The curse of Moses had come true for one helpless woman who made a death pact with her neighbor and the king is undone by grief. Completely understandable. But the question is: What does King Jehoram DO with his grief? What do you do with yours? You live in a world that isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. So where do you turn with ?

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2 TWO RESPONSES TO THE CRISIS, 6:30-7:2.

A THE KING WHO CURSES

At first glance, it seems as though the king is showing the signs of a heart filled with worship - tearing his clothes as a sign of repentance for the evil that has brought the trouble that’s about to destroy his nation.

But the next verses tell a different story. READ 6:30-33. “(A)nd he said, ‘May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today..’.”

The king isn’t repenting - he’s plotting murder. But wait! Elisha is the one who saved the king’s bacon - when Naaman the Syrian military commander came, carrying his leprosy - looking for a cure in Israel. This very king was terrified - and it was the prophet who stepped up and who God used as His agent of healing.

This is an irrational threat - but it’s not an idle one. He sends a messenger to ambush the prophet while he isn’t expecting it. Do you see what’s going on here? The king of Israel is enduring a crisis the likes of which none of us have ever known - people reduced to cannibalism on your watch - the life of your people and your reign, shrivelling up right before your eyes. This is judgment from God - the king knows it - his mesenger makes that clear in v. 33, “This trouble is from the LORD! ” ... but rather than going TO the God who is disciplining His wayward people - the king is choosing to CURSE God instead - the end of v. 33, “Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

And I talk to so many people today - who have been through crisis in life - and they have responded by cursing God too.

This is not where I wanted my life to be today - I’ve given God long enough to bless me - and look at this mess ...

B THE PROPHET WHO CLINGS

Elisha knows exactly what’s going on, he even knows that he’s being hunted down. But his response is exactly opposite to the king’s. READ 7:1-2

“Hear the word of the LORD”. Stop right there. The opposite to cursing isn’t sucking it up, pushing through crisis stoically, with stiff upper lip. The opposite response in a crisis to CURSING GOD is CLINGING TO HIS WORD. And that’s exactly what Elisha is doing here.

“Thus says the LORD, about this time tomorrow - a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” A seah is about 7.3 litres - so he’s not promising cheap food: that’s still a month’s salary and you could normally get over 100 l, not 7 for that much.

But what he IS saying is that the return to normal would BEGIN - that the relief from the seige is coming and that tomorrow - there will be buying and selling in the gate of Samaria once more. There won’t be any Black Friday deals, but the shops will be open!

The king’s military attache says ‘no way’. Verse 2: “Even if the LORD himself made windows in the heavens - He couldn’t provide enough food overnight for the starvation wracking Samaria to come under control. That’s NAIVE - thinking Elisha!” That’s too much to believe.

Where would anyone get a food supply big enough to drive the prices down? Not even manna from heaven could save them now, was the captain’s sarcastic response. He hears the good news, but he rejects it. He heard stories about the miracle of grace, but he refused to believe them because he doubted God’s saving power. As a result, he fell under God’s curse. Elisha said to the man, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it” (v. 2).

Elisha isn’t just talking about what God COULD do .... as if he was a kid bragging on his dad: “My dad is big enough and strong enough that he could make enough food and bring enough food for everyone in the whole city to get some.”

How many people cling to the wrong thing when they talk about their god: My god is science - Science can solve ....

My god is the government: The government can find a solution ....

Even people talking about God fall into this trap sometimes: “God is big enough to heal every sickness and stop the flooding right now and end suffering today.” And yes - yes God is big enough and powerful enough to do all of those things. But that’s irrelevant. And I have seen so many people lose their trust and hope in God because He didn’t do what they think He should have done - when He’s Sovereign enough to do it.

The only thing that matters is this: “What has God PROMISED to do?”

Look at what Elisha says in v. 1, “Elisha said, ‘Hear the WORD OF THE LORD: THUS SAYS THE LORD ...” When God promises to do something - then no matter how unbelievable it may be - then you don’t want to be caught in unbelief:

Elisha says, ‘Oh God’s going to do it - He’s going to provide food by tomorrow alright. Tomorrow at this time, there will be buying and selling again - right here in this devastated city … BUT - (and see how he ends v. 2) “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” Your lack of faith - will keep you from enjoying the blessing of God.

When God speaks - no matter how staggering the promise may be - you can take it to the bank. Do you hear that, Christian? The character in our text is a faithless government employee, but the temptation is the same for so many of us, isn’t it? God has made so, so many staggering promises in His word. And it is so easy to read right over them, as you make your way through the Bible - and think to yourself: “Oh, that’s nice … BUT NEVER TAKE IT TO HEART!

Promises like Jesus spoke in,

John 6:39, “And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” Can death pry Jesus’ people out of His hand? The promise is that - if you belong to Jesus Christ by faith in His finished work - if Jesus Christ is your hope and your salvation - then you can know it is because before you ever had the thought to surrender your pride and trust in Him - FIRST - God gave you to Jesus. And God’s Sovereign, unstoppable plan is that Jesus would lose NOT a single soul. Even if death intervenes .... Jesus will raise them up on the last day. Not even death itself can separate you from your Saviour.

That’s a staggering promise.

And Paul adds his voice in Romans 8:31-39

Oh, but the Christian life is so, so hard. And sure, you have those times when the devotions are easy - the prayer seems to just flow from your heart and your lips in real, emotional praise … but so many are the times when I wander, or when I fail. When I doubt God’s promise - I’m not doubting His power - so much as I’m questioning, “Why would He do anything good for ME, of all people?!”

Elisha is sharing God’s Word of promise - to this people who have adopted a fake pagan, sexually depraved deity in place of the God who gave them this land in the first place and has rescued them time after time. Do you really think He has something for them, but not for you - the one He gave His Son to save?

TWO RESPONSES TO CRISIS - The King who curses and Elisha who clings to God’s Word.

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3 A DAY OF GOOD NEWS?

The camera fades out at the end of 7:2. In verse 3, the camera turns on once again - to a new scene. This one is very different.

READ vv. 3-4.

We are transported to the outside of town - and a group of four men, huddled outside the entrance to the city gate. One look at them is all you need to understand why they’re outside the city and not on the inside. The white flaky blotches on their skin, as well as the rotting flesh makes it clear that these men are lepers. They are outside the city because they aren’t allowed inside. They are seen as contaminated and dangerous to the otherwise healthy population.

Now, as you read through the story - at first glance, this scene seems completely out of place. We’ve just heard the king’s cursing and Elisha’s clinging to the promise of the LORD’S Word - and now … a mini-leper colony?

Well, as you keep reading, it starts to make more and more sense.

The four men are deep in discussion: They are starving and need to decide the next step in their seemingly endless survival plan. It’s a battle for these guys to survive, every single day of life - no matter WHAT is going on in the larger society. But now things are exponentially more dificult. They could go inside the city - despite the law, because when Samaria is going through this kind of crisis - it’s not very likely that the people inside are going to be too worried about a few vagrant lepers without their health passports up to date.

The problem is - there’s no food in there - so they’ll die. But if they stay here, where they are - - they’ll die. So what do we do? “One of the fellows comes up with a solution” - Since we’re going to die anyway - let’s go big … let’s cross over to the enemy camp. They are the only ones with food around here. Verse 4, “… 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.”

“If we make our way into the enemy camp and throw ourselves at their mercy - - what’s the worst that can happen to us? The enemy can kill us which is what’s going to happen if we don’t do anything anyway.” And there is at least a sliver of a chance that something good happens: “Maybe we’ll get lucky and get some food.”

It’s a brilliant plan for a desperate time.

So they go. READ vv. 5-8

The men make their way to the Syrian camp, bracing themselves for the uncertainty that lies ahead: this decision will either bring life-nourishing food - OR - it will mean torturous execution. The enemy tents get closer and closer with every step, as the sun dips deeper and deeper into the western horizon, until twilight comes and they set foot into the strangely quiet camp - only to discover: There’s nobody here!

The text doesn’t leave us guessing what happened. Verse 6, “For the LORD had made … (in the Hebrew, the beginning of the verse is emphatic: “The SOVEREIGN LORD”) had MADE the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army ...”

The Syrians thought that Israel’s king had made a quick treaty with a couple of foreign powers - the Hittites and the Egyptians - and their armies were closing in on them to crush them. So they ran for their lives.

Well, nobody here - for these lepers - means … JACKPOT! I don’t know what kind of military policy the Syrians had, but it’s not like any front-line provisions I’ve ever seen. There’s food and drink - which the men help themselves to … but there’s also silver and gold and clothing … Hawkeye Pierce and Radar O’Reilly in M.A.S.H never had a mint of precious metals in their tents - a teddy bear and a homemade still - but no gold and silver.

The lepers take an armful of loot and head to the next tent and carry more off and find a hiding place for their newly discovered riches. What a windfall - they came here just hoping to get enough food to not die - and they end up with a lifetime of financial security!

After they’ve stashed a couple of tents worth of wealth - conscience starts to work. they think of the people, just over the hill in Samaria - starving to death and they say:

READ vv. 9-11

“We are not doing right. THIS DAY IS A DAY OF GOOD NEWS!”

They go back and tell the gatekeeper what they’ve found and the news is taken to the palace where the king is in mourning over the impending end of his city and likely his life.

Now - do you notice the response of the king? The lepers who had already experienced the bounty of an empty camp - they had no human compulsion to come back to Samaria and share their good news - I mean they aren’t even allowed into the city. The bitterness of rejection could have filled them and they could have kept the blessing to themselves, but they don’t. They come back to spread the blessing around

… and the King of Israel will have NONE of it.

Verse 12:

“I know exactly what’s going on here! This isn’t good news - it’s an enemy plot. BITTERNESS - this is the overflow of a heart that has made the decision to curse God - he can’t see blessing anywhere.

Thankfully, there is a servant standing nearby who dares to speak up and gently go against the king’s conclusion.

Verses 13-15

Scouts are sent to investigate and sure enough, the Syrians are gone - and they have left behind a trail of abandoned clothes and military equipment in their haste to evacuate. The lepers’ story is true.

They report back to the king - and look at v. 16: “then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians.So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barely for a shekel … don’t miss the end of the verse: “ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF THE LORD.”

See the people - cowering and captive behind unbending walls for months - reduced to cannibalism - - now not only are they free - but they are eating again. Life is on the way back to normal. God promised and God always … ALWAYS keeps His Word.

Oh but not everyone is enjoying the food.

TWO RESPONSES TO CRISIS: curse God: Remember the captain from the beginning of chapter 17? He scoffed that God could provide food for a starving city in a matter of 24 hours. Well - Sure enough. READ vv. 16-20

God does keep His promise - but the doesn’t get to enjoy it. Elisha said ‘you shall see it with your own eyes - but you shall not eat of it.’ You’ll see God’s fountain of blessing flow - but you won’t get a sip.

As the curtain closes, at the end of this act - See the stark contrast on display: On one side you have a scowling king, standing over the lifeless body of a scoffing military captain. On the other side you have a finally free city population - basking in their freedom - with lepers and nameless servants feasting on food they didn’t grow and plundering treasure they didn’t work for. The promises of God are sure.

Don’t miss how this relates to you, friend. If you allow the crises of life to embitter you - if you suffer the pain of life in this sin-scarred world and allow the heartache to lead you to CURSE GOD … you will NEVER recognize His hand of blessing at work for you.

Hebrews 3:12, “Take care brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” And, in Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please (God), because whoever would draw near to GOd MUST believe that He exists and that he REWARDS THOSE WHO EARNESTLY SEEK HIM.”

So where is your temptation to curse God? Is it in a natural disaster that threatens your earthly possessions? Is it in a hostile social environment, a health disaster, picking up the pieces of an abusive relationship, or you’ve lost a loved one and you can’t seem to get over the pain?

C.S. Lewis griving the wife God had unexpectedly given him, later in life - his best friend and lover, who had then been given the death sentence of terminal cancer. He reflected: “Not that I am ( think) in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about Him. The conclusion I dread is not ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but ‘So this is what God’s really like.’”

John Owen, the Puritan: “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that He loves you.”