THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN
2 Kings 7:1-20
2 Kings 6:24-25 24 Now it came about after this, that Ben-hadad king of Aram gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in Samaria
Aram’s army has surrounded Samaria in a siege for a long time. Their supplies are gone and people are starving to death. Extreme famine.
How bad was it?
* A donkey’s head sold for 80 shekels of silver....just the head. Now that is being hungry. Many times more than whole donkey pre-famine.
* Dove’s Dung-1 pint for 5 shekels. Was it actual bird dung or a plant they called dove's dung?
If the plant, that’s just about like a bag of sunflower seeds.
If actual dung, enough for a few minutes fire. (Not likely actual dung, because they’d eat the dove 1st.)
* 2 starving women pledge to boil and eat their babies. After eating one baby, the other mother hides her baby away. The angry one goes to the king complaining, not about eating them eating her own baby, but about how she hid her baby and they now have nothing to eat.
We pick up the story in chapter 7. God is about to open up the windows of heaven and pour out His blessings on them and He is going to do it in a very unusual way thru very surprising people.
2 Kings 7:3-4 3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ then the famine is in the city and we will die there; and if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die.”
4 lepers outside the gate. Not allowed in because they have leprosy. If they remain there, they will starve to death. If they leave, the Arameans will likely kill them, but who knows? Maybe they won’t.
* Some positive things to point out about these lepers:
(1) They have problems, but aren’t whiners. They have big problems but are trying to do the best they can for themselves.
(2) They at least try to do something positive. The people in the city are doing nothing to solve their problems and are fighting each other.
A problem we have in America today, there are too many quitters. People who have been dealt a tough blow and just give up. Satisfied lin a dark pit of whining and misery and don’t even try to do better.
** My first word of advice today is “To do everything you can do and trust God to do the rest! To do what you cannot do.”
* “God helps those who help themselves” is not in the Bible. I firmly believe that God helps those that cannot help themselves, but I also believe that God will not help those that will not help themselves!
2 Kings 7:5-7 5 They arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there. 6 For the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.” 7 Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys, even the camp just as it was, and fled for their life.
During the night something awesome has happened!
The God of Angel Armies has sent His armies to circle the enemy and scare the lift out of them.
They woke up in terror and ran away and left behind all the food and treasure that you could imagine!
2 Kings 7:8 When these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they entered one tent and ate and drank, and carried from there silver and gold and clothes, and went and hid them; and they returned and entered another tent and carried from there also, and went and hid them.
They have hit the jackpot. They are rich beyond all imagination.
2 Kings 7:9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent; if we wait until morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
In the middle of their feasting and celebrating, they thought about how God had blessed them. They began to realize that they simply could not keep it all to themselves.
Why did they decide to share the Good News?
(1) They were excited about God’s blessings!
So excited that they wanted to share the good news with everyone, even those who had looked down on them because of their leprosy.
We also ought to be excited to share the Good News of eternal life!
(2) They knew the peril the others in the city faced.
The people in the city were dying because they didn’t know the enemy had been defeated by God.
Lost people need to know that sin and Satan have been defeated by Jesus Christ and salvation and victory is readily available to all.
(3) They knew the King would eventually find out.
They understood that there would be a time of Reckoning if they did not do the right thing and share the Good News.
There is a Time of Reckoning also for believers who were either too lazy or unconcerned to share Christ with lost people who are dying and going to Hell.
** Why did they think the king would find out and punish them?
Because they have probably been down this road before! Jewish rabbinical writings teach that these 4 lepers are Gehazi and his 3 sons.
Remember, Gehazi was Elisha’s servant back when Naaman the Leper got cured of leprosy. Naaman had wanted to pay a fortune to Elisha for the cure, but Elisha had absolutely refused it. Gehazi, though, went behind Elisha’s back and later told Naaman that Elisha wanted the payment after all. Because he lied to Naaman behind Elisha’s back, God struck Naaman with the curse of leprosy and he and all his family would be lepers forever.
The reason he knows is because he has already been down this road. He is sorry he lied before by taking Naaman’s wealth and is careful to not let this happen again. This shows me that Gehazi is doing works that prove his repentance to God.
In verses 10-15, it tells how the 4 lepers went back and shared the Good News to the King and the whole city. The King sends out scouts and finds that everything they told them is true. Next, the king sends out chariots and wagons and bring all the food, clothing, weapons, and treasure back to the city. The famine is over!!
* But the story is not over! The day before they find the empty camp, Elisha had already prophesied that God would deliver them that day.
The king had been so distraught about the 2 women that ate the baby, that he had sought out Elisha the day before.
2 Kings 7:1-2 Then Elisha said, “Listen to the word of the Lord; thus says the Lord, ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” 2 The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Then Elisha said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”
Officer- Ridicules the prophet of God and God Himself. “Not even God can fix this mess we’re in!”
Elisha- drops a bomb on him. You’ll see it, but not benefit from it.
Let’s look at the rest of the story.
2 Kings 7:17-18 17 Now the king appointed the royal officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate; but the people trampled on him at the gate, and he died just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. 18 It happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, will be sold tomorrow about this time at the gate of Samaria.”
* Too many today are just like this officer.
They’re in a mess. They are under attack and it seems hopeless.
When God promises deliverance and salvation, they simply won’t believe it. They mock God.
* Maybe today you feel like you’re situation is so messed up not even God can help you.
* God’s goal for you today is to bring you to a crisis of belief.
To help you see that God is powerfully able to bless you.
To deliver you. To save you!
How you respond to God in this crisis of belief will determine how God will respond to you. Whether He will bless you or you miss the blessing completely.
