Read 2 Kings 7
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!”
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, “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. 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.
Go Deeper
In Chapter 6, we read how dire the situation became in Samaria (capital of Israel) due to the siege of the Aramean army. The King of Israel exclaims, “… Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” Chapter 7 opens with God’s reply through Elisha and ends with the realization of this prophecy.
Elisha prophecies a miraculous end to the famine overnight! There was no earthly way for this result: food was in high demand with gravely minimal supply, and the Aramean army was well entrenched to ensure it stayed that way. An officer helping the King of Israel voiced his (and probably others’) doubt.
[The officer said], “You expect us to believe that? Trapdoors opening in the sky and food tumbling out?”
“You’ll watch it with your own eyes,” [Elisha] said, “but you will not eat so much as a mouthful!” (The Message)
The rest of Chapter 7 describes how God used circumstances to do exactly what He said He would do. At the end of the chapter, we find this officer at the gate to command the security of the city. When news that there was food available and it was safe outside the city, the crowd surged through the gate, trampling the officer and fulfilling the fatal prophecy.
While the officer’s logic told him the prophecy was impossible, Isaiah 55: 8-9 tells us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
As we look around at circumstances in this broken world, we may not see a way for things to be better. This may be as practical as finances simply not adding up to the bills to be paid, or it may be as overwhelming as the division and hate sweeping our country. We just can’t see any way for the current situation to change…but God can. He is not bound by our limited perspective. His Spirit can see things in ways we can’t even imagine. This same Spirit, if we accept it in faith, can reveal the Truth to us.
May we recognize the Truth of the Spirit, even when we see no earthly way.
Questions
- Have you accepted the Holy Spirit into your heart and chosen to follow Jesus’ as your savior? If not, we have some good news to share with you here.
- Have you ever experienced a situation that seemed hopeless, yet God worked it out? If so, thank Him and share this example with your community. If not, ask your Life Group if any of them have experienced this.
- What current situation seems beyond an earthly solution? Pray for God’s ways to be higher than your ways and for the faith to accept His Truth.
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4 thoughts on “2 Kings 7”
“Just as the Lord had promised” (v16) carries such wonderful hope for us today. The Christ-follower receives the Holy Spirit who confirms “all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him amen, to the glory of God in us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Let’s know the word, receive & believe the word, and act accordingly. How amazing that God receives glory and shows his extraordinary power through “jars of clay”—human vessels committed to Him!
God always has the answers to all the questions. It is up to us to choose to ask BUT then we have to listen and then we have have to choose to obey. God wants the absolute best for us ever step and breath. Just like Isaiah 55 says His ways are best . In Colossians 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised with Christ keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.2 Set your mind and keep focused on the things above (heavenly things) not on things that are on the earth ( which have only temporal value). 3 For you died to this world and your new life is hidden with Christ in God. Wrapping our heads around that someone loves us that much can be difficult. There is someone who wants and desires to help every single situation and time but we have to let Him.
Thank You God!! My mere words seem never enough to speak what effervesces in my heart for you God!!! Grateful thankful and blessed seeing how You work in my world. Thank You in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO and WOOHOO!!!
I couldn’t help but focus on the lepers and their spreading of the “good news”. I’ve been reading Wild Goose Chase from Batterson and he states there is a time to quit praying and act! The lepers, I’m sure were praying for God to deliver them. They took a step of faith, and then God answered their prayers. Not before, but after!
Peter Marshall, former chaplain of US Senate said, “I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read the Gospels until we came to place that told us to do something, then went out and did it, and only after we done it, start reading again?”
Batterson states,”When Christianity becomes a noun it’s a turnoff. It’s meant to be an action verb. The title of Acts is not the book of Ideas or Thoughts or Words. It’s the book of “Acts”. God didn’t say ‘Well said’, or ‘Well thought’,…He said ‘Well DONE, good and faithful servant.”
May we all learn not to keep the “good news” to ourselves…but act quickly to spread the riches of the Kingdom waiting for us in Heaven! 🙌🏻
Father, help us to move from thoughts or words to ACTION!