Opening Prayer
My God, I am so thankful for your Word, for its message of love, assurance, and hope. I am thankful, too, for the ways that you speak to me through it, changing me so that I can bring you glory.
Read 2 KINGS 7:3–20
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Siege Lifted
3 Now there were four men with leprosy[a] 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.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 7:3 The Hebrew for leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin; also in verse 8.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Ask for eyes to see God’s blessings for what they are and to learn to expect good things from him.
Think Further
The king’s right-hand man had not believed Elisha when he had predicted that the famine would be over by the next day (vv. 1, 2) and the king did not believe the story of the men with leprosy when it happened. 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 realizing 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.
Apply
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.
Closing prayer
Lord God, no matter what are my circumstances, help me to boldly stand in your promises, confident in your good purposes for me.
Last Updated on October 8, 2024 by kingstar
