> SCENE ONE King and a Woman
Famine - Not a natural one. Caused by Syrian seige. Donkey’s (unclean, undesirable) head for 2 Lbs of silver…who has that? “Dove’s Dung” … Ramen Noodles of the ancient world. (Wild Onions? Seed pods?). No one could afford either. - King was walking. - Woman spoke out of turn. When you’re hungry enough, you just quit worrying about protocol. - Ate her child yesterday, was going to eat friend’s child today. Suddenly, several things became clear: 1. They were living under a curse. Deuteronomy contains many conditional blessings and curses, all of which hinge on the nation’s faithfulness to God’s commands. In the case of disobedience…
SLIDE: Deuteronomy 28:49ff
Deuteronomy 28:49ff The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand…They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. As soon as the woman told the king what was happening, he tore his clothing in despair, and he had to acknowledge that the curse was in effect. OPTION: Return to faithfulness? Instead, he decides to kill the messenger. “May God do so to me and more also if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”
> SCENE TWO Elisha + King + Captain
SLIDE: Hold the Door
In our second Scene, Elisha is in his house with the elders of the community. God prompted Elisha to know what was coming.
“A murderer is coming to take off my head. Hold the door!”
The messenger shouts to him through the door, “This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I wait for the Lord any longer.” It’s an ironic question, isn’t it? The King is saying, “Because bad stuff is happening, why should I trust God?”
Elisha is thinking, “You know, if you had been trusting God, a lot of this bad stuff wouldn’t be happening!”
Elisha responds quickly and provocatively:
7:1-2
But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
No matter how much food cost today, by tomorrow, 7 quarts of flour are going to sell for less than 1/2 an ounce of silver.
SLIDE: Manna
THE DOUBTING CAPTAIN: “Manna is never going to happen again. No way even a miracle of God could accomplish what you’ve just said.”
Elisha says nothing about HOW this will happen, but he puts his credibility on the line by trusting that it WILL happen.
> SCENE THREE Lepers and an empty Syrian Camp
SLIDE: Lepers
In our third scene, we have four lepers.
If any nation is going to starve, it is the poor people, and the people on the fringes who are going to starve first.
A leper might love their country, but they have a lot less reason for loyalty, because they have a lot less to lose.
CONVERSATION: Why sit here waiting to die? If we enter the city, we’ll starve because of the famine. If we go to the Syrians, we might die because they kill us.
If our only option is to die, at least we know the Syrians have food…let’s go and see if they’ll have mercy on us.
So they get to the Syrian camp, and there’s not a person there.
Everyone is gone. The tents are there. The horses are there. There is abundant food everywhere. There’s plenty of silver and gold. But the people are gone.
SLIDE: Ghost town
What nobody knew is that During the night, the LORD had caused the sound of chariots and horses and a great cry. To fill the Syrian camp, and they left in a panic.
Basically, God showed up at their camp and said, “BOO!”
Once the lepers were full, they realized they weren’t doing right…they needed to report back to Israel, so they went to tell the King.
Of course, he didn’t trust anything…figured it was an ambush. So he sent out 2 horses to explore, and what they found was that the Syrians were running so fast and so hard, they left a trail of goodies all the way from their camp to the Jordan River, several miles away.
The writer wants us to notice how specifically the word of Elisha came true:
2 Kings 7:16-17
Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. 17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. HE SAW IT, BUT DIDN’T GET TO TASTE IT.
> Putting it together God is the Actor
Some stories become a lot more powerful in hindsight, as we can understand more of what was going on, and as the readers of this story, we understand some things that no one in the story understood.
The Syrians had no idea what Elisha had predicted. They had no idea what created the noise that scared them away.
The King of Israel had no idea what had driven away the Syrians over night, and even as it happened, he still doubted it was real. He was powerless to fix his situation.
Elisha told clearly the word from the Lord that prices on all goods would drop by tomorrow, but nothing in the text indicates that he knew HOW God would accomplish this.
SLIDE: Primary Actor
In this story, we see that GOD is the primary actor. Elisha announced Good news, but God is the one who connected the good news of bread, with the working out of this good news.
You see, God only had to act once in this story. And by God’s one action:
The Syrians were deceived
The lepers discover food
The Israelites are delivered from the famine
> Worldly Kingdoms Focus On Threats (Communism) Our kings, our presidents, our executives aren’t much different than those of Israel and Syria.
Do you see in this story that both Israel’s leaders and Syria’s leaders are driven entirely by fear?
And in both cases, they form policies and make decisions based on a mirage of a threat.
What’s the message to the Syrian soldiers, “We’re under attack!”
What’s the message to Israel after the Syrians are gone, “Don’t go out…we’re probably still under attack!”
SLIDE: Could be a Communist
ILLUS:
Often our interactions with evil powers in the world are a blend of both real and imagined threats.
Undoubtedly there were some Communist governments who did great evil during the 20th Century.
But it’s pretty fascinating to study the effects on our culture of what was called the Red Scare.
I know my parents grew up having regular bomb drills in school, because the Communists might attack us.
This shaped our country in a lot of ways.
SLIDE: Movies, Cincinatti Red, Bible
MOVIES: Trend in Science Fiction movies where over and over again, the story was about foreign aliens who tried to attack and take over our planet.
SPORTS: Cincinnati Reds became the RED LEGS, because all things RED were distrusted. BIBLE: The Revised Standard Version of the Bible came out in 1952. They made a huge mistake of selling it with a Red over, and many people refused to buy it, for fear that it was a communist Bible.
The history of how we treated Japanese immigrants during this time period is really shameful.
We were suspicious and afraid of nearly everything.
Worldly Kingdoms always focus on threats. And there’s ALWAYS something threatening us. Just flip on a 24-hour news station…I promise they’ll have some reason why you need to be afraid right now.
Remember, even after the Syrian army had completely fled the scene, the King of Israel can’t even accept or believe the good news that they’re gone, because he’s busy imagining another threat.
When we are the people of God, we can’t always avoid threats or problems, but we can trust God to carry us through these things.
SLIDE: Table with food
I think this story gives a unique slant to that verse in the 23rd Psalm: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” In this case, both the table and the food WAS the enemies’!
> People of God receive UNEXPECTED, UNEXPLAINABLE BREAD
The Good news about the Kingdom of God is fundamentally good news about Bread.
The world’s problems are real, and on our own, the world’s problems are unconquerable.
But we are here today because God has provided us all with UNEXPECTED, UNEXPLAINABLE BREAD.
When you live your life walking closely with the creator God, it means you are always connected to a source of abundance.
Jesus described himself in John 6:48-51
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
People have a hard time accepting the good news of God’s grace in Christ because it is undeserved, unexpected, and really incomprehensible.
But when we stay connected to Jesus, we have the bread that we need. We experience Godly surprises in how doors open for us, and we are delivered from what would scare and dominate us.
SLIDE: Emphasizing the WHAT more than the HOW
> We proclaim the WHAT rather than the HOW
As Christians, we can learn from Elisha’s witness.
Elisha gave them the what, more than the how.
If you’ll trust in the Lord, God offers you forgiveness. God will carry you through your problems.
“But how will he do it?” “I don’t know.”
We remember the promises of God, and we trust that God will do what he promised.
Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
James 1:5, “ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” I Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” God has given us the job of proclaiming the WHAT. We have to trust God to work out the HOW.
> Divine providence remains hidden unless it’s TOLD about
SLIDE: Romans 8:24-25
If you haven’t walked with God, it’s easy to doubt whether he’ll keep his promises.
For this reason, it’s critical that we continue to tell the stories of God’s faithfulness.
In this story…NO ONE saw God act. No Israelite was there to witness what happened to the Syrians. But as it was discovered, it needed to be told.
In your own life, you’ve had times that you were worried, that your situation was unsolvable, and God opened a door. We need to record, remember, and retell those stories. Tell them to your kids…remember what God has done.
You see, divine providence remains hidden unless it is told.
God is at work, but it is our job to be watching, and to tell the stories of God’s faithfulness.
Because we know where to find bread, we don’t need to live such timid, fearful lives.
Romans 8:24-25, “24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
We focus on WHAT God has promised. We let God worry about HOW it will all be established.
