Just Around The Corner
2 Kings 7 September 11, 2005
Intro: (beginning of 9:30 service)
Living here in Alberta, the standard joke is “if you don’t like the weather, wait half an hour.” Something better is coming, something good is on its way.
I want to read you a Bible story, from 2 Kings 7 (NLT). “1 Elisha replied, "Hear this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost only half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only half an ounce of silver."
2The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, "That couldn’t happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!"
But Elisha replied, "You will see it happen, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!"”
Background:
Elisha looked around the corner, and saw something good was on its way. You see, the city Elisha was in was surrounded by an enemy army – the Aramites. The city was surrounded, no one could get in or out, and they had run out of food. It had gotten really, really bad. So bad that I decided not to read chapter 6 to you because I’d have to censor it for children.
The officer that Elisha is talking to here has come to kill Elisha, since Elisha was a man of God and so it must be his fault. Elisha makes an impossible promise, let’s see what happens next…
2 Kings 7:3-17
3Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. 4"We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
5So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! 6For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out. 7So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.
8When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. 9Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace."
10So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened--that they had gone out to the Aramean camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a single person around. 11Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
12The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city."
13One of his officers replied, "We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it won’t be a greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us."
14So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 16Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of fine flour were sold that day for half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for half an ounce of silver, just as the LORD had promised. 17The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out.
So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house.”
The Point:
God has something really great just around the corner for us, too. This morning we are kicking off our fall ministries, starting Sunday School for all ages, beginning youth ministries for junior high and senior high and college and career people, and family groups and evangelism groups, getting into learning how to worship with our whole lives during our ministry called “2nd Hour”, and I want to say that God has some really great things, just around the corner.
I am so excited about what God is going to do, what He is going to teach, how He is going to shape our lives and our character, how He is going to demonstrate how incredibly much He loves us.
That story about Elisha and the city of Samaria is for us – we might feel trapped inside, we might feel like we are in the middle of a difficult time in our lives. But God has already defeated the enemy, sent them running away in the middle of the night, and just ahead, just around the corner, we are going to march out from underneath the siege and take hold of an incredible bounty.
Intro Teachers and Leaders:
The number one reason I am that excited, that confident, is because of our own army. We are going to introduce and pray for an army of ministers – people gifted by God, full of the Holy Spirit, and called to serve just like Jesus served when He washed the disciples feet. (call Lyn, Joshua, Sue up to intro and pray)
(After Scott’s Testimony in the first service)
2nd Intro…:
Earlier in the service I read you the story of Elisha and the siege of Samaria from 2 Kings 7. I want to make one simple point out of that story, and it comes from the timing of events. Let’s look at this together for a moment…
The Beginning:
Let me back up to the end of 2 Kings 6. “31"May God kill me if I don’t execute Elisha son of Shaphat this very day," the king vowed. 32Elisha was sitting in his house at a meeting with the leaders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the leaders, "A murderer has sent a man to kill me. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out. His master will soon follow him."
33While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived. And the king said, "It is the LORD who has brought this trouble on us! Why should I wait any longer for the LORD?"”
What a great question – “why should I wait any longer for the LORD?” The answer is because the Lord has something great, just around the corner, that He is already doing. Even if you can’t see it… yet.
This confrontation happens during the day, and Elisha makes his bold, impossible, prophecy – by tomorrow, everything will be different.
Meanwhile…
That same day, 4 sick guys are sitting outside of the city gate, and they recognize how desperate the situation is, and end up deciding to surrender to the enemy army. Verse 5 says, “so that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there!” They sat around all day, deciding what to do, then finally went out that evening. And they found an empty camp. Can you imagine that?
You see, God had already taken care of the problem… God had already rescued, already saved, already driven the enemy away, God had already sent them scurrying in fear for their lives, leaving everything behind in their terror.
And He had done that the night before. Verse 6-7 says, “6For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out. 7So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.” The night before the lepers reached the end of their rope. The night before the King arrived to cut off Elisha’s head. The night before the prophecy Elisha made. God had already done it.
The King’s Reaction:
The lepers return in the middle of the night and report to the gatekeepers, who shout the news up to the palace, and they wake up the king. Remember, it is now 24hours or so after God had already won the victory. The King wakes up, suspects a trap, dispatches the scouts who return probably in the later morning with the news – it is true! The enemy is gone. And so the people rush out and experience the victory.
The Battle Is Already Won:
They experience the victory that God had already won. A day and a half ago, while they were still feeling completely defeated and desolate and discouraged. God was already at work. At the very moment Elisha made the prophecy, the camp was empty – it was already true, the soldiers were gone, the food just sitting there, all they had to do was walk out and grab it. All they had to do was step out into the victory, and start to feast.
A Personal Story:
I saw this truth first had this week. On Wednesday night I was praying with Gail Smith on the phone, and I confess that I poured out my frustration with God a little more honestly than I usually do. Because I was upset about all the things going on with Gail’s mom in the hospital, upset at the grief and the suffering I was watching. By Thursday morning, Gail’s mom had once again turned the corner as was suddenly doing much better, and that afternoon Gail said something quite profound to me – “while we were praying last night, God was already doing it.” We just had to wait for morning to see it.
Conclusion:
1 John 2:8 says this: “8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”
The true light is already shining. At whatever place you are at in life right now, God is working on something. He has a plan, He knows what He is doing, and it is going to be incredible good, incredibly beautiful, and incredibly full of life. That is true for us as a church as we head into this fall, it is true in my life, and it is true in your life also.
Believe in tomorrow, because the pain of today has already been overcome by what God did yesterday. It is just around the corner, and it is going to be great.
