"If Not Now, When? If Not You, Who?"
I. INTRODUCTION:
Today Alfred Nobel is known as the scientist who established the Nobel Peace Prize to recognize people's achievements in such fields as physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, and literature, or for someone's work toward peace among the nations. However, the name Albert Nobel was not always associated with peace. At one time it was associated with war and destruction.
According to historians, a drastic change took place in Nobel's life because of an error in a local newspaper. One day, Alfred was reading a Fench newspaper and stumbled across a scathing obituary about...himself! In this obituary, Alfred was labeled as a "merchant of death." He was known for inventing and developing explosives (including dynamite) used in both construction projects and warfare. He was horrified at what he read and the legacy that the article proposed that he had left behind. While the newspaper's error of mistaken identity was corrected--the paper was meant to identify Alfred's brother, Ludwig, who had died--Alfred had an awakening. He "became so obsessed with his post-humourous reputation that he rewrote his last will, bequeathing most of his fortune to a cause upon which no future obituary writer would be able to cast aspersions." No one today thinks of Alfred Nobel as the inventor of explosives. We think of him as a man who advanced peace through the Nobel Peace Prize.
You can determine your legacy. You cannot redo what you've done, but you can turn yourself around, starting now, and live a life that counts for the Kingdom. It happens when you begin to realize that if it is going to happen you have to stop thinking about the past or the future and just start where you are realizing that you are the one God has called and destined, this is the place where He has placed you and wants to work through you, and now is the time to do whatever it is that He has called you to do. (See "Overcoming When You Feel Overwhelmed" by Jentzen Franklin)
There is a story in the Bible that illustrates this point. Let's look this morning at 2 Kings 7. The story takes place during a time when there had been a famine in the ancient northern Israelite city of Samaria. During the famine, the Syrian military set up a siege against the city. Sieges were one way one nation would attack another when trying to conquer them. They would basically camp outside their opponents' city walls and starve them out. Things were going from bad to worse for Samaria. There was a famine and a siege. They were starving. They were trapped inside their own place of safety, dying. And right in the middle of their difficult circumstance, God gave them a word through the prophet Elisha.
How often has this happened in your life? God has a way of sending us just what we need when we need it, doesn't he? Our text reads:
II. TEXT:
2 Kings 7:1-20 (NLT)
Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.”
The man of God prophesies that within twenty-four hours, where there was once famine and starvation, there will be plenty. One of the beautiful and mysterious things about life is that there are moments when things turn around quicker than we expect. Why are we so negative? Our imagination often drifts to the worst-case scenario. We are conditioned to believe the worst, but the prophet says things are going to turn out better than you thought. He isn't completely unrealistic, however. The prices that Elisha predicts are still pretty high, but he says that there will be enough. And that is far better than the state of things as they are presently enduring a famine while under siege.
2 The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!”
This is the king's administrative assistant. Although, he is no stranger to the prophetic word, in this difficult moment he scorns the word of God.
He doubts the power of God. The phrase translated as "windows of heaven" here refers to rain. He was thinking that God would have to pour out rain on crops that would have to grow, be tended, harvested, and ground. His mind was stuck in what he understood as natural processes.
He doubted the creativity of God. He thought that God could only work in one way. He looked around and thought that because Samaria was surrounded, so was God. In his carnal view, he imagined that the only way God could provide was to open "the windows of heaven." God is up there, and we are down here. God had to work inside of his preconceived notions.
He doubted the messenger of God. Elisha had not prophesied anything to this point that did not turn out the way he had spoken. He had a great track record as a prophet!
All in all, the officer well illustrates the conduct of unbelief:
· Unbelief dares to question the truthfulness of God’s promise itself.
· Unbelief says, “This is a new thing and cannot be true.”
· Unbelief says, “This is a sudden thing and cannot be true.”
· Unbelief says, “There is no way to accomplish this thing.”
· Unbelief says, “There is only one way God can work.”
· Unbelief says, “Even if God does something, it won’t be enough.”
But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”
While there are moments when our doubts can keep us from experiencing the fulfillment of God's promises, that doesn't mean that our doubts are powerful enough to tie the Hands of God from meeting the needs of others around us. Once God has determined to do something, it doesn't matter what you think or say, He will do what He pleases, but the fearful thing is to miss out on it ourselves. God have mercy on us in those places where we doubt, please help our unbelief (Mark 9:24)! The prophet's words contain a harsh judgment, but illustrate a reality that many unbelievers experience every day. They cannot enjoy life. It is a sad state of existence when we have everything except contentment.
God, don't let us be among those who only see, but do not taste. It happened to the ten spies because of what they said (Num 13-14). It happened to Moses because of what he said (Palm 106:33). God, please be with us like you were with Sarah when you overrode her unbelief! You determined that she was going to be a part of what you were doing and you let her see it, in spite of her doubt! Lord, be with us like you were with Thomas! You met him at his place of doubt and turned it into faith!
***Then the scene flips to the city of Samaria. Like the old silent film, "Meanwhile, back at the ranch." Meanwhile, at the gates of Samaria...***
3 Now there were four men with leprosy {this can be any type of skin disease. This made these men ceremonially unclean and unable to live among the rest of the Israelites.} sitting at the entrance of the city gates. {liminal space}
I want to stop right here and talk about liminal spaces. There are a lot of them in our text. Psychologists define liminal space as the transitional place in between. It may be physical (like a doorway), emotional (like a divorce, or the loss of a loved one), or metaphorical (like a decision). Liminal spaces and places can evoke uncomfortable and eerie feelings and emotions. Who loves waiting rooms? Or hanging out in breezeways in between buildings? Who enjoys that gnawing feeling that comes with not knowing what exactly is coming next? Liminal spaces can be hard.
Kirsten Franklin is a transformation coach and mindset expert who works regularly with professional athletes and high-level executives. She says liminal spaces are "where one thing ends and another is about to begin, but you are not quite there yet, you are in the space between.” https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-liminal-space/
It can be a weird funky place.
The gate of the city was the marketplace as well as the local court of justice and a place where all types of transactions took place. It was all these things and the entrance and exit of the city, a liminal space. In the moments where we are in between we have a choice to make that can lead to transformation or stagnation. Our choices in liminal spaces can lead to flourishing or languishing. It is in these spaces and places of life where we often have conversations with ourselves, and where we have conversations with others. We talk things out. We think them out. These four lepers have a conversation. It goes like this:
“Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. 4 “We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. 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.” {the reality of their own demise - this is another liminal space}
Sometimes all of our options seem the same. I am reminded of the classic poem by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken." It says:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Frost wrote the poem in jest about his friend who tended to overanalyze which path to take when they would go on walks through the woods. No matter which path he ultimately chose, he would complain at the end that he wished that he had chosen something different. The point of the poem is that both paths were the same, there wasn't a road less traveled! There are moments in our lives when we overanalyze things and suffer the paralysis of analysis. This is not that we should be rash or flighty in making decisions, but there is a place where if we are to move forward in life, we must choose something.
The lepers realized that if any food became available, they would certainly be the last to receive it. They realized where they were and came to a place where they began to weigh their options. They did not know about Elisha's prophecy. They did not know about the reality of God's work to bring about a swift end to the famine or even imagine that God just may be about to work through them. How would our lives change if we believed:
Philippians 2:13 (NLT)
"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."
What if we really took to heart Romans 8:28-29 (KJV)?
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
These four leprous men were unaware of what God was doing, yet their willingness to choose to live in spite of their death sentence made a difference in their world. We have received "exceeding great and precious promises." We are partakers of the Divine Nature! (See 2 Pet 1:4).
In their liminal space, they decided not to allow life to continue to just happen to them. They decided to participate, and by doing so they changed their own destiny and the destiny of those inside the city of Samaria. Their story got written down in the Sacred Text. We are reading it here this morning and being affected by it. They were about to be a part of a miracle that took place in what seemed like such an ordinary set of circumstances, all because they chose to get up and move!
We come to places in our lives where we just have to do something. When we have prayed and acknowledged God. When we have planned and still are unsure, sometimes we just have to step out. And so they do...
5 So at twilight {liminal place} they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there!
Twighlight is the soft glowing light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, caused by the refraction and scattering of the sun's rays from the atmosphere.
Twighlight is the period of the evening when twilight takes place, between daylight and darkness.
Twighlight can metaphorically refer to a period or state of obscurity, ambiguity, or gradual decline. A liminal place. It can be used of someone or something that is losing strength. As we age we slowly but surely approach the twilight of our lives.
These lepers walked all the way around the camp, the long way, in order to appear that they had come from some other place than Samaria. Sometimes you just have to put one foot in front of the other and head somewhere. It may not seem like your favorite option, but it may just be the best or only option that you have, but you've got to do something.
“It is difficult to steer a parked car, so get moving.” (Henrietta C. Mears)
The highway of life has twists and turns and exits and onramps.
As they walked around in the liminal space, the Lord made the Syrians hear more than the sneaky fearful weak footfall of sixteen diseased feet.
6 For the Lord had caused the Aramean army 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 to one another. 7 So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.
God made the enemy hear more than what was there. God used the ordinary decision of a group of weak, diseased people to bring about His prophetic promise. You sometimes think that in order for God to use you, you have to get this or that thing right, and you should strive for excellence. But, if you think you're going to attain perfection and then God is going to use you, you're mistaken! If we were to remove the flawed, weak, dysfunctional figures from Scripture, we would be left with Joseph, Daniel, Mary, and the Lord Jesus. Pretty much everyone else struck out more than once!
It has been often repeated. The next time you think God can't use you, remember, Noah was a drunk. Abraham was too old. Isaac was a daydreamer. Jacob was a liar. Leah was ugly. Joseph was abused. Moses had a stuttering problem. Gideon was afraid. Samson had long hair and was a womanizer. Rahab was a prostitute. Jeremiah and Timothy were too young. David had an affair and was a murderer. Elijah was suicidal. Isaiah preached naked. Jonah ran from God. Naomi was a widow. Job went bankrupt. Peter denied Christ (3 times!). The Disciples fell asleep while praying. Martha worried about everything. Mary Magdalene was promiscuous. the Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once... Zaccheus was too small. Paul was too religious. Timothy had an ulcer... AND Lazarus was dead!
Paul said (1 Cor 1:26-29 NLT):
"Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God."
His Strength is perfected in weakness! (2 Cor 12:9)
The king's administrator said God would have to open windows in heaven to end the famine. The LORD replied, "No, I'll just get a quartet of lepers to go for a walk and scare the enemy to death."
Oh, child of God, if you could only see how powerful you are when you do what God wants you to do!
The enemy scattered and the siege and famine were over, even though no one in the city of Samaria knew it.
8 When the men with leprosy {they were still broken} arrived at the edge of the camp {still in liminal spaces}, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. 9 Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning {they realized they were in an in-between place}, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”
They rightly enjoyed the miracle of God's Provision, but then they realized the responsibility to tell somebody else! Don't be stingy with The GIFT God has given you! The Gospel is Good News! We should tell everyone that we meet! What Jesus has accomplished in His death burial and resurrection works when applied. It worked in your life! We must tell others!
These four weak men came to a conclusion that we all should embrace. Listen to these verses that we commonly quote:
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths."
Psalm 37:4 (NKJV)
"Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart."
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
As I prayed yesterday morning and thought about these verses the thing that came to me was that the common denominator in each is prioritizing God. The wisdom literature of the OT is consistent in one thing, having a reverent awe of God is the first step to unlocking wisdom for living out of which every blessing flows. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
These lepers realize that their lack of sharing the goodness of God with those who still thought the famine was going on and they were still besieged was an affront to God Himself.
There is a tradition in rabbinic Judaism that these four lepers were Gehazai and his three sons. Gehazai had been Elisha's protege at one point in his life. During that time Naaman, the leper, who was a mighty leader in the Syrian army had come to Samaria searching for the prophet. Ultimately, he was cured of his leprosy by dipping in the Jordan river at the command of Elisha. Gehazai foolishly coveted the wealth of Naaman contrary to the prophet's wishes. Gehazai got the wealth of Naaman, but also his leprosy. If there is any truth to the rabbinic tradition, it tells us that Gehazai had learned his lesson. Don't be stingy! Stinginess can make a beggar out of you. God flows through vessels that are willing to allow the blessings to flow through them.
***Namaan the leper did not allow his leprosy to keep him from doing great things for his nation. We should not allow our weaknesses and deficiencies to keep us from doing great things for God!***
Jesus said the children of the world are often wiser than the children of the kingdom. How many reels come across our feeds every day showing some athlete or motivational speaker, who against great odds, has done things no one would imagine they could?
10 So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” 11 Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
12 The 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.”
13 One 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 will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us.”
14 So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15 They 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. 16 Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the LORD had promised. 17 The 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. 18 The man of God had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.”
19 The king’s officer had replied, “That couldn’t happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!” And the man of God had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” 20 And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
Their refusal to sit and die led to life, and it influenced an entire city.
Mark Twain is often misquoted as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration." He had written to a reporter who had reported that Twain was on his deathbed. Twain quipped that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
Like Albert Nobel, who altered the course of his legacy by being intentional about changing his actions and what he would leave behind we have a choice today. Like the lepers who refused to sit and die, but do what they could, we have a choice.
The Lord invites us to seize the day. Now is the accepted time. If you wait until things are perfect, you'll do nothing! Flow with the season.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.”
(William Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar)
The miracle did not come through the opening of the windows of heaven but through a twist of events that not everyone could see as miraculous. What if God is at work in the ordinary decisions that you make every day of your life?
III. APPLICATION:
There is someone here today who has been on the fence about a decision that you have been looking to make. This morning as you think about that decision, please consider the LORD first, acknowledge him, ask whether the decision will glorify Him, and make it this week. God is calling you forward into life. Stop sitting still.
He wants to influence someone through you. Don't just sit there! Your weakness is not enough to hinder His Strength!
