Fires, Floods, And Fuel

Have you been hearing the news, lately? Out west there were fires out of control, destroying an enormous amount of property. In Indiana and Iowa, there was severe flooding, with people losing their lives. In Japan, a major earthquake, killing a number of people.

Have you pulled up to the gas pumps, lately? It seems an almost daily news item that gas prices have once again reached a record high.

Who ever heard of a government in deep deficit, sending out money to try and stimulate a staggering economy? I will not endeavor to pass any judgement on whether or not that was a good idea, nor will I try and make a public guess of how much that little check will cost us, who pay taxes, in the long run, because that’s not my area of expertise, and it’s not the responsibility placed upon me by my calling as a preacher of the gospel. What I do wish to do, however, is call your attention to the fact that things are going on, and I believe they have biblical significance. It is not business as usual.

All of the events that seem to be increasing in their intensity, like a huge snowball rolling down a mountainside, are in my judgement pieces in a puzzle that are bringing us to the end of the age in which we live.

While this message is not really about the end of the age and the return of the Lord, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that the end of the age and the return of the Lord are going to happen.

I turn your attention to our text, 2 Kings 6:24-7:20. This text is a biblical reminder that it doesn’t take long for people to get into serious trouble, but it is also a reminder that our God is EL Shaddah, the God who provides, and He is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we can ask or think! When you don’t know what the world is coming to, you know who has come into the world!

I have outlined this passage into four simple points, and I will attempt to show you how this passage of Scripture, penned down so many years ago, is relevant to our lives today.

First, there is the condition they faced.

Talk about high prices! A donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver. Judas sold Jesus for thirty shekels of silver, and here people were buying an old donkey’s head for almost three times that much. The cap on top of dove’s dung was being sold for five shekels of silver! That makes gas prices seem not so bad!

What will people do when they really get desperate? How low can people sink? Here is the account of two women agreeing to eat their babies, and they ate one, but then the other mother backed out of the deal when it came time to eat her child. It’s hard to imagine that a mother would allow the child of her womb to be killed by an abortion doctor, but this even takes it to a lower degree than that.

We have taken luxury for granted for so long in this country, that we think we are entitled to it. We’re not, and all that would have to happen is for Almighty God to withdraw His hand of blessing, and in just a very, very short time the ugly nature of desperation and depravity would rise up in a society that, more and more, knows nothing of a personal relationship with the One who clothes the lilies, feeds the sparrows, holds the future, and came that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.

Secondly, what they considered to be the cause of their deplorable conditions.

If it wasn’t so sad, it would almost be comical to observe the perspective people have on our current conditions.

This king, in our text, said in verse 31, “It’s that preacher’s fault.” A reading of the verses leading up to our text shows that Elisha, God’s preacher, had been giving the word of the Lord to the king of Israel, and had, in reality, been the kings greatest asset. What the king could not see, in his short-sightedness, was that God allowed a time of famine in order to accomplish His own purposes. He was going to show His hand of power to His people, Israel, and He was going to show them, one more time, the necessity of their dependance on Him.

Before you get to caught up in the fervor of this political season, I want to remind you that Nahum 1:3 tells us that “...the Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm...” Daniel 2:21 says of the Lord, “...He removes kings and raises up kings...He knows what is in the darkness...”