This is our last sermon on Elisha, that bald ‘n’ bold prophet. We’ve seen how he’s been a man of action. Three weeks ago we heard how he kept an entire army from dying of thirst in the desert when he promised that water would appear out of nowhere. Then he saved two boys from being sold into slavery when he promised their mother that the little olive oil she had left would stretch so that she would end up with enough extra oil to sell for a profit. And last week we marveled at how Elisha brought a dead boy back to life! What about the miracle Elisha worked in today’s sermon text? Do you remember what that was? You’re right. Elisha did nothing. He was simply the mouthpiece through whom God promised an amazing rescue for the citizens of Samaria. In fact you could say that about all the miracles Elisha worked. He was nothing but the conduit through whom God worked to help his people, just as the pipes in your house don’t produce the water you need to survive but only deliver it.
As we review today’s featured miracle, the saving of Samaria from hunger and from an enemy army, the Holy Spirit is going to teach us again the importance of not only hearing God’s Word, but believing it - even when what God has promised seems utterly unbelievable.
The situation in the city of Samaria was this: it was under siege by the Aramaeans – people from present-day Syria. They surrounded the city so that there was no way out or in. To make matters worse there had been a famine in the land so that it seems that when the siege started, the citizens of Samaria were already low on food. The situation became so desperate that one woman suggested to another that they take turns eating each other’s children! But when it was the second woman’s turn to give up her child, she refused. When the matter came to King Joram’s attention, he was shocked and then fumed: “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!” (2 Kings 6:31)
Huh? What did Elisha have to do with it? Well according to 2 Kings 8, Elisha had predicted seven years of famine and had urged the Shunammite woman (whom we met last week) to leave the country for a place where there would be food. Had Elisha actually prayed for this famine the way his mentor, the prophet Elijah, had prayed that it wouldn’t rain during the time of King Ahab as a testimony against that king’s wickedness? If so, we can understand why Joram would be angry with the prophet.
But even if King Joram and the people of Samaria were wicked and deserving of such a calamity, why make the children suffer? Didn’t God care about those kids whose mothers were willing to eat them? I don’t have an answer that will satisfy those who have no use for the God of the Bible. What I can say is what Jesus stated when he was asked why bad things happen to seemingly innocent people. In Luke 13 Jesus was asked about a number of Jews whom the Roman governor Pilate had killed while they worshipped at the temple. The people wanted to know what sin these men had committed that God would let them die the way they had. But Jesus told his audience that they were asking the wrong question. Instead they were to ask: “What if that had been me? What if I had died at that moment? Would I have been ready to meet my Maker?”
That’s also the question that we need to ask ourselves when we hear about dreaded diseases like Ebola or when we read in the news about violent terrorists. Instead of shrugging and saying: “Those things could never happen here,” those disasters should remind us that yes, someday we too will die. In fact death could come sooner than we expect. It does not matter that you are still only a child or still in high school. Death does not discriminate. Are you ready even at this moment to stand before the holy God and answer for your life?
On one hand we have every reason to be afraid to stand before God. Tell me, how do you feel when your cell phone or your internet connection keeps cutting out on you? Do you just shrug your shoulders and say, “Ah, well I shouldn’t expect any better.” Of course you don’t. You expect your tech toys to work as designed and you will complain until your service is running the way it should! So why should God expect anything less from people he created and designed to thank and praise him 24/7? How can God be pleased when our selfishness interrupts our service to him? Yes, we have every reason to be afraid of God because of our sins.
King Joram didn’t get that. He acted as if he was lord, and God was his servant whose job it was to make his life easy. And so whenever there were problems, Joram was quick to take his anger out on God’s messenger, Elisha. Joram intended to execute Elisha but when the king showed up at Elisha’s door to make good on his threat, the prophet made an amazing pronouncement. He said: “Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria” (2 Kings 7:1). In other words, “By this time tomorrow, Joram, Samaria’s food shortage will disappear and grain will be sold at bargain prices.”
Joram didn’t deserve such a promise of reprieve and yet there it was. It’s not unlike God’s promise of forgiveness to us. So often we come to him fuming about some perceived slight or injustice while we remain blind to our own sins that cause problems. But instead of rebuking us God gives us his promise of love and abundant forgiveness.
Joram and his entourage ought to have been humbled at God’s grace, instead one of the king’s advisors scoffed: “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” (2 Kings 7:2a) Elisha assured this official that God would indeed provide enough food for the whole city. That official would see the miracle with his own eyes, but because of his unbelief he would not benefit from it. That very evening, God caused the Arameans to hear what sounded like a huge army advancing on them. Thinking the Israelites had managed to hire the Egyptians and others to attack them, they fled. They fled so quickly that they didn’t take any of their provisions with them but left everything outside the city of Samaria.
The Samarians learned about the enemy’s flight quite by accident. A group of lepers figured it was better to be a well-fed captive than a starving freeman and so they decided to surrender to the enemy. But when they ventured into the enemy camp they found it deserted. The lepers helped themselves to all the food they could eat and even started to haul away treasures before they said to one another: “We’re not doing 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” (2 Kings 7:9).
After the king sent out scouts to confirm the report, there was pandemonium in the city. Crowds poured through the gates to get at the food and fill their hungry bellies. The rush of people was so sudden and so overwhelming that the official stationed to guard the city gate was trampled to death. This was the same man who the day before had scoffed at Elisha’s message. Just as Elisha had predicted, that man saw the miraculous abundance of food, but he did not benefit from any of it.
The warning from this section is obvious isn’t it? We should never doubt God’s promises – no matter how unbelievable they may seem. When God invites us to honor him with the best of our offerings and promises to still keep providing what we need, we shouldn’t think: “Well, that may have been true of people in Bible times but they didn’t have the cable, cell phone, and mortgage bills I do.” Nor should we justify our lack of love, patience, and forgiveness towards others by saying that we’ve tried to be nice to them, but no more. Instead we will want to believe Jesus when he says that even with faith the size of a mustard seed we can continue to offer love and forgiveness over and over again as this is his will for us (Luke 17).
You see we’ll want to be like the lepers in our text. It’s when they resigned themselves to surrendering to the Aramaeans that they found God’s unexpected blessings. Likewise when we stop struggling with God’s promises by trying to figure out how they can be true or coming up with reasons why they won’t work, when we simply surrender to God’s Word, we will find peace and calm to get through our challenges. And that’s what faith is: surrendering to God by confessing, “Even though this doesn’t make any sense to me, even though I don’t know how you are going to pull this off, I believe what you say and I put myself under your care. May your will be done in and through me, O Lord.” The good news is that God himself gives you that kind of attitude through the gift of the Holy Spirit whom you received at your baptism and who comes to you again and again through the Word like in this sermon to strengthen your faith in God’s promises – no matter how unbelievable they may seem.
That brings us to an end of our sermon series on Elisha. But this series was never really about Elisha was it? It was about the God of the Bible who has done and continues to do marvelous things for sinners like us. And so when our God speaks, don’t just hear what he has to say; listen to it; believe it; act on it! Do this with confidence in the name of Jesus who fulfilled God’s greatest promise when he gave himself for our sins. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
What two problems did the city of Samaria face in today’s text?
The people of Samaria were really suffering. Even the children suffered. Why does God allow such suffering?
King Joram deserved a word of rebuke for his arrogant attitude towards Elisha, God’s prophet. What amazing pronouncement of grace did Elisha give the king in spite of his arrogance? How was that pronouncement received?
The sermon stated that we Christians will want to be like the lepers in our text. Why?
We’re now finished with the sermon series on Elisha. Which sermon was your favorite? Why?
