Slices
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Thank the Lord for the Bible.
Bible passage
The siege lifted
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.’
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.
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.
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, ‘Make 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. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: ‘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.’
19 The officer had said to the man of God, ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’ The man of God had replied, ‘You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!’ 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
Explore
While there are plenty of lessons we can draw from this passage, verses 19 and 20 are clearly the moral the writer wants us to take from the story. The earlier exchange between Elisha and this servant (7:2) is retold and we are encouraged to reflect on the fulfilment of Elisha’s words. I love how many times it is pointed out that this is what God had promised would happen (vs 16,17,18,19,20), to make sure that we get the message. It was an unpleasant conclusion for the officer concerned (v 17), but why is his death our lesson? The officer’s sin was to doubt God, to suggest that God’s word through Elisha could not be trusted.
The king, too, struggled to accept that God could have worked a miracle overnight, even though Elisha had told him it would happen (v 12). His suspicious mind caused him to create other possible reasons for the Arameans’ departure. Often, our tendency too is to be suspicious or doubtful when something good happens unexpectedly, especially when we have lost hope as the king had. Perhaps we don’t see miracles often enough to expect them like Elisha did (v 1). Let’s try to make a habit of thanking God when he intervenes on our behalf.
Respond
Which Bible promises are most significant for you right now? Maybe it’s because you’ve seen them fulfilled, or perhaps because you are clinging on to them. Take time to meditate on them now, and thank the Lord that they are still true for you today.
Deeper Bible study
Father, please let me be one of those who see your blessings for what they are; let me be one who expects to receive good things from you.
The king’s right-hand man had not believed Elisha when he had predicted that the famine would be over by the next day (vs 1,2) and the king did not believe the story of the men with leprosy when it happened. These two would not have been singing yesterday’s psalm, praising God for raising the poor and needy from the ash heap. The king thought that what looked like loot for the taking was actually an Aramean trap. The men with leprosy, on the other hand, had nothing to lose. They were going to die, anyway, so they might as well take a risk. As a result, they were the first to partake in God’s blessing and to sit with princes.1
The king needed to be persuaded by his officials that he really had no other options and to let them investigate the story. It is reminiscent of Naaman, who needed the servant girl and then his wise servants to point him in the right direction. Both Naaman’s servants and the king’s officials used the same kind of persuasive reasoning tactics, which amount to, ‘What have you got to lose?’ Sadly, the right-hand man was trampled to death in the rush out of the city and the story ends by reminding its readers that Elisha had also predicted this.
The account of the four men with leprosy is wonderfully realistic, in that one can imagine it happening. That is: the outcasts not being able to believe their eyes, then making the most of their good fortune by feasting and plundering for a few hours before realising that perhaps they ought to do the right thing and share the good news. Their immediate needs and desires satisfied, they turned their thoughts to the wider community and more long-term gains.
The men with leprosy were not cured: they still had the disease. We also can have life in all its fullness in Christ even with progressive, terminal diseases and other life-changing circumstances.
1 Ps 113:8
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 11,12; John 5
Pray for Scripture Union
Praise God for inspiring and equipping SU’s Sarah Davison to explore the opportunities that Hybrid Mission presents, and enabling her to collaborate on it with experts around the world.(This week's prayers relate to this story.)
