Under Siege

Under Siege:

2 Kings 6:24-33 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall,

there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. 27 And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? 28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. 29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him:

and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son. 30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold,

he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. 31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. 32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door:

is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? 33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him:

and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD;

what should I wait for the LORD any longer?

2 Kings 7:1-5 Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2 Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?

And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now, therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:

if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp

of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part

of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there.

I. INTRODUCTION:

A. Hear my first thought: So many today are praying for God

to change the wind. It appears that the winds are blowing

CONTRARY to what we think they should be blowing.

So we ask God: GOD PLEASE CHANGE THE WINDS!

God says: WHY DON’T YOU CHANGE YOUR SAILS?

B. Siege: To take hold of forcibly or suddenly.

To arrest or apprehend. To take advantage of.

C. Remember our REAL HOME IS HEAVEN.

An old song says: This world is not my home; I am just passing through... Heaven is no fairy tale. “HEAVEN IS…..

A PREPARED PLACE FOR A PREPARED PEOPLE.”

D. Heaven is a real place. I picked up a hitchhiker many years ago.

I witnessed to him and spoke about heaven. He told me he did not believe in heaven, he had never been there, so heaven could not be real? I asked him did he believe there was a place known as Paris, France? Of course, he believed. Yet, he had never been there.

I asked him if he accepted London, England as a reality?

Well, of course I do Preacher, was his reply. I asked him had he ever been there? No, was his answer. I asked him if he knew anyone personally that had ever been to England or France?

His answer was no. I could not understand why he could accept the reality of Paris or London but he could not accept heaven?