God Provides

Introduction

Who likes to read fiction? I particularly like to read stories where you don’t know who the hero, or heroine, is going to be. When you read a series that is centered on a particular character, you know that person is the hero. But when the story is of an event, or circumstance, and you find out about the characters, but don’t know up front who is going to come up with the solution to whatever the problem is, then the book becomes more of a page-turner that you can’t put down until you know what ends up happening. There you are, at 2 a.m., because you just can’t put the book down.

Context

In chapter 6, Ben-Hadad, king of Aram has marched from Aram to the Israeli city of Samaria, which was the northern kingdom’s capital city, and laid seige to it. The seige lasted so long that there was very little food left inside the city walls. 6:25 mentions that people were eating the heads of donkeys, and paying a high price for it. Detestable, and ceremonially unclean for the Jews. A cab is about a 1/4 lb, so this was about 1/16 lb. Seed pods, or doves’ dung (normally used as livestock feed) meant the edible bulb of what we today call Star of Bethlehem. It was evident that the king held Elisha, or the Lord, responsible for the predicament that they were in. So he goes to Elisha, not wanting to wait for a response from the Lord any longer, and was ready to kill Elisha because of the problems they were having. Not sure why he thought killing Elisha would solve anything, but Elisha says:

Doubts 2 Kings 7:1-2

The New International Version (Chapter 7)

Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

‘Hear the word of the Lord’ - ‘hear’ is in the plural, indicating Elisha was telling everybody there to listen. ‘What the Lord says’ - Elisha stressing that what he is saying are not his own words, but directly from God.

The siege that had caused such extreme difficulties for the city of Samaria would tomorrow, the very next day, be a memory. Elisha gives a couple examples of goods, flour and barley, that would sell for normal pricing, despite their being extremely expensive today, if you could even find some for sale. Elisha also points out that this pricing would be available at the city gates. Normal business transactions, including buy food, was done right next to the city gates, but because of the siege, the gates were closed to keep the enemy out, so all business had to be done inside the gates. Elisha is saying that tomorrow, it would be business as usual, the siege totally over with.

‘officer on whose arm the king was leaning’ - such an odd phrase. What does it mean? Today we would say he was the king’s right hand man. Chief advisor might be a title for him. Note other translations: NLT - officer assisting the king’. ESV - captain on whose hand the king leaned. NASB - royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning. CSB - the king’s right hand man. We can almost hear the sarcasm in his voice. He didn’t believe that even God could turn the misery around that fast. This officer’s name must have been Thomas, you know, Doubting Thomas.

Elisha prophecy’s that the officer will see it happen, but won’t live to partake any of it. He didn’t believe God’s message delivered through Elisha, so he would not enjoy the blessing when it came.

Desperate Men 2 Kings 7:3-4

3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

They realistically figure out that there were 4 possibilities for them to go with. Go into the city, which was forbidden because they had leprosy and there was no food in there anyway, stay where they were now where there was no food, go to the Aramean camp and maybe get killed, or go to the Aramean camp and perhaps NOT get killed. Of these, there was only one place to go that MIGHT end up with them living, where there was plenty of food and water. If those were your only choices, what would you do?

2 Kings 7:5-8

The New International Version (Chapter 7)

5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

‘edge of the camp’ comes from a word meaning the outskirts of the camp, which would be the far side of the army camp from the city wall. The men must have circled the camp to come in the back side. Why? It was a point least likely to have guards, or to (better odds to live) possibly make it look like they were coming from some other place, not Samaria.

So the men come walking into the camp, to find....nobody home, but all their stuff is here. They fully expected to be grabbed and questioned. Here we have another God thing. God caused the entire army to hear sounds, the same sounds, so loud and terrible that they believed an army greater than they were, was about to attack them. I wonder if different armies sound different? The sound had to be so intense and so realistic, that they left everything, money, clothes, food, animals, tents, everything. The wording is they ran for their lives.

God often provides in unexpected ways. The 4 men went to the enemy, hoping not to get killed. Not only did they not get killed, but there was plenty of food and drink. Just what they had been going without for some time.

Announced 2 Kings 7:9-11

The New International Version (Chapter 7)

9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

So our 4 friends at first helped themselves to all that was there, including taking the time to take some and hide it for later retrieval, but then realized they needed to report this. Now was this a moral conviction (need to do the right thing), or was it a save-my-hide conviction knowing that eventually others would find out what happened, and would not be happy with the 4 if they had continued to leave the city hiding in fear behind the walls, when the enemy was actually gone.

Either way, we can assume they preferred to be seen as heroes, rather than criminals. So they go and announce the news to the guards at the city gate, and the message is conveyed to the palace.

Skeptics 2 Kings 7:12-15

The New International Version (Chapter 7)

12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’ ”13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” 15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king.

I can’t blame the king of his suspicions. This would not be the first time such a ploy had been used. The Arameans knew what desperate conditions existed inside the city walls, so pretending to leave, but actually hiding in the countryside would have been a reasonable plan. Fortunately, one of his officers had a plan to verify the report. His logic: send some men to scope it out, and see if the enemy is still out there or not. If the enemy is out there, and they kill our soldiers, well, the soldiers were going to die inside the walls anyway.

So men are sent, by chariot, to check out the report. They went so far as the Jordan River (25 miles away), and found no army, but only possessions strewn along the road. So, they returned and reported to the king.

Rest of the story

The next several verses describe how the people of Samaria plundered the Aramean camp, taking great quantities of food, which eliminated the famine that had been in the city. Realize that there would have been massive amounts of food with which to feed an army for an extended length of time. Bringing all of that back into the city caused pricing to return to normal.

Remember that Elisha told the officer he would see the end of the famine, but not get to enjoy it? V.17 tells that the king put him in charge of the city gate, and when the people found out they could plunder the enemy’s camp, there was such a rush at the gate that the officer was trampled to death.

Applications

So who were the heroes of today’s account? The lepers. They risked their lives to check out the enemy camp. They ultimately saw the need to do the right thing by their people, and reported the result of what God had done, even though they didn’t know how. Notice also the twice in our passage, our lepers discussed with each other the predicament that they were in, and jointly decided what to do about it. Do you have someone to discuss problems with, who can help determine the best path to follow?

Proverbs 11:14 (NIV)

14 For lack of guidance a nation falls,

but victory is won through many advisers.

That is the really big application. We need to believe in God and what He is doing, even if we don’t know HOW he can or will do it. Think of the disciples at the feeding of the 5,000. They were told by Jesus to feed the people with a few loaves and few fishes. They questioned Him because they didn’t know how to, and they didn’t yet believe in who He was. God expects belief in Him, and does not always choose to tell us how He is going to do things.

Our officer didn’t believe that God could end the siege and the famine by the very next day, and he died because of his unbelief.

God offers us salvation if we but believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior. We certainly can’t understand all there is to salvation, but if we believe and accept, we live. If we don’t believe or accept, we die.

Next Week - 2 Kings 12:4-16