Elisha's Ministry - Trample The Lord And You Will Be Trampled By The Lord 2kings 6:24 - 7:1-20 Series

ELISHA'S MINISTRY - TRAMPLE THE LORD AND YOU WILL BE TRAMPLED BY THE LORD 2Kings 6:24 - 7:1-20

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 18

SUFFERING IN SAMARIA

2Kings 6 v 24 Now it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria, 2Kings 6:25 and there was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it so that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

And with that, we come to a most serious part of the Elisha story. This account has great ramifications for us today in our country and it is all because of the way man lives in accordance with God’s principles, or otherwise. We will trace these ideas out today.

Verse 24 begins with a siege of Samaria. The king of Aram, Ben-hadad, brought his whole army against Samaria, and if you can recall from a previous message, Naaman was the commander of that army. I just want to recall some background for our story starting with Samaria. Saul was the first king of Israel, followed by David, followed by his son Solomon. Solomon left problems behind him, and in this one case, he left his stupid son, Rehoboam as king. Solomon may have written the book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom, but his sons were stupid. There is a lesson in this, but it will take us off our track. Anyway, because of Rehoboam’s stupidity, the kingdom of twelve tribes was split into 10 tribes and 2 tribes in a rebellion. The 10 were led by a man, Jereboam, a foreman under Rehoboam in his workforce.

Jereboam wanted to defile the 10 tribes when they split, so he set up two golden calves for idolatrous worship in Bethel, and the whole top half of Israel became known as Samaria. It was also called The Northern Kingdom, or Israel. The 2 tribes were Judah and Benjamin, and that was the Southern Kingdom or just Judah. Samaria continued in idolatry for all its history with not one good king. It continued for a couple of hundred years until destroyed by Assyria.

The people were still Jews, but there was a deep division often, and this lingered even until New Testament times when we read “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans”. The second part of the background I want to deal with is the connection of the Jew with the land. God’s blessings and judgements are always in the land. When the people called by His Name do right, God blesses them, but when they do wrong, as in worshipping worthless gods, then He curses the land with drought and crop failures. Samaria always did wrong and very few of God’s righteous ones could be found. Elijah and Elisha both ministered there and in Elijah’s time, only 7 000 righteous ones were known by God in Samaria (or Israel, if you like). Samaria suffered the hand of God upon it, and that is where our story today takes place.

The purpose of verse 2 is to tell us how desperate things were. The price for a donkey’s head at 80 shekels of silver was enormous and a kab of dove’s droppings for 5 shekels was a huge price. [July 2022 ? Silver = US $18.70 an ounce (Aus $27.17). One Shekel = US $7.52 (Aus $10.93). THEREFORE: Donkey’s head = US $602 (Aus $874.60). A kab is 1.2L. A quarter of a kab of dove’s dung = 300g = US $37.60 (Aus $54.63)]

The people were suffering, but the cause was unrighteousness. It was wickedness in high places but also in the hearts of the people. God will never honour unrighteousness. Our western nations today are just like this. Sin brings sadness, suffering and famine. Here the Samaritans are starving and are fearful.

2Kings 6 v 26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” 2Kings 6:27 and he said, “If the LORD does not help you, from where shall I help you - from the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” 2Kings 6:28 The king said to her, “What is the matter with you?” and she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow,’ 2Kings 6:29 so we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.” 2Kings 6:30 It came about when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes - now he was passing by on the wall - and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body. 2Kings 6:31 Then he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today.”