Don’t Hold Your Peace !

2 Kings 7:1-20 Don’t Hold Your Peace !

Intro: The city of Samaria was surrounded by the Syrian army. In ch. 6 we are told that things were so bad that a donkey’s head was sold for 25 pieces if silver and that dove’s dung was sold for 5 pieces of silver. Mothers were killing their children to eat.

I. Their Dilemma V 3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

a. They were Sick. The disease of Leprosy was regarded as a awful punishment from the Lord. It’s name means "smiting".

Like leprosy the sinful nature of man is inheritied. Every person born into this world outside of Christ himself is born in sin. The Psalmist declared "In sin did my mother conceive me." Like leprosy, sin spreads. Leprosy affected those who were in immediate contact as does sin.

Sin, like Leprosy brought shame and disgrace upon the individual. The leper was hopeless apart from a work of God as is the sinner. Outside of a miracle from God the Leper would die in his condition. Apart from the work of grace, the sinner is doomed !

Their Condition was :- Heinous, Hopeless, & Helpless

b. They were Separated. V 3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate

No leper could live in a walled city. And wherever he was he was (a) required to have his outer garment torn as a sign of deep grief. (b) required to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle as if lamenting at his own virtual death. (c) obligated further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out "Unclean ! Unclean ! (d) not allowed to speak to any one, or receive or return any salutation since this involved in an embrace. (e) The Leper was cut off from the house of God, and was excluded from priesthood. They lived a shameful, segregated, and separated life. We are separated from God because of our sin ! We are unclean !

c. They were Starving. V 3 and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 1.Their Condition Was Hopeless: 2.Their Calamity Was Certain: 3.There Choice Was Obvious: (vs. 4) Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:

II. Their Decision . V4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

a. We see them Dying.

Though Leprosy itself was and is rarely fatal, it is like a living death because of the pain associated with it, the deformity that it brings, and the stigma that accompanies it.

They were alive.....but dead ! In Europe during the Middle Ages people with Leprosy were declared dead. They then witnessed their own funeral and symbolic burial before they were banished. The person without Christ is alive physically, but dead spiritually.

Paul refers to the lost as being "dead in trespasses, and sin !

b. We see them Dwelling. V4 and if we sit still here, we die also.

Why sit we here and die ? There were few opportunities for the lepers. Not many choices were available. But they realized that if they remained where they were...they would die !

c. We see them Deciding. V4 Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:

To enter the city would first of all be in violation of the law, and would only end in their death because of the famine. Yet to sit where they were would be certain death. They had to make a decision ! Something had to be done !

d. We see them Departing. V.4 let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:

The word "fall" means to "cast ourselves down". If they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die

The Lord has provided a way for us to escape our sinful state. The Lord Jesus died on the cross that we might be cleansed ! We too must make a decision to depart from where we are.

e. We see them Depending. V5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.