Why Sit We Here Until We Die

Why Sit We Here Until We Die

Introduction: The King of Syria, King Ben-hadad, had been trying to make war with Israel for some time but God had been letting Elisha read the King of Syria’s mail. Elisha would tell the King of Israel, whose name was King Jehoram wicked King Ahab’s son, where the King of Syria was hiding in wait for the army of Israel and the King of Israel would go in a different direction. Finally the King of Syria found out what was happening and said that he would put a stop to this, so he sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround Elisha. You might remember that Elisha’s assistant got up early one morning he looked outside and all he saw was chariots to the left of him, chariots to the right of him, chariots behind him and chariots in front of him. Everywhere he looked He saw enemy chariots. He went running back to Elisha telling him about how bleak the outlook was. I am sure he told Elisha, they have us now. All Elisha, that great prophet said was, O Lord open his eyes and let him see. O’ God open our eyes and let us see today. Let us see your power. When God opened the young man’s eyes, the young man looked out again and all he saw was angels to the left of him, angels to the right of him, angel behind him and angels in front of him, everywhere he looked he saw angels. When we are on God’s side we are never outnumbered. It might feel like it at times but all we need to do is pray that God would open our eyes and let us see Him and His power. Elisha then asked God to strike the Syrian army with blindness and He did. Elisha then led them to the capital city of Israel which was the city of Samaria and then when they received their sight Elisha told the King of Israel to give the enemies army food and drink and there the two sides made a truce for a time. Sometime later, however, King Ben-hadad of Syria broke the truce and he sent a large Army to besiege the city of Samaria and because of the siege there was a great famine. The cost of food soared. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver. People got so desperate that women were killing and eating their own children. The king of Israel blamed Elisha and God for the siege and in haste and anger he said he was going to behead Elisha. When he got to Elisha’s house, Elisha informed the king to hold on for another day because in 24 hours 5 quarts of choice flour will cost only 1 piece of silver and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver. One of the Kings servants laughed at Elisha and mocked him and said that could not happen even if God opened the floodgates of heaven. At this point we will turn our attention to the scriptures.

II Kings 7:3-16

Why Sit We Here Until We Die

I want us to look at 4 details of this scripture that we just read. First I want us to look at the

I. Hopelessness of the Lepers v.3-4

a. You can see their hopelessness through The Disease

i. Leprosy is also known as Hansen’s disease

ii. The disease is caused by a bacteria that affects the nerves. The nerves are damaged and destroyed leaving the person with little or no feeling in their limbs.

iii. Leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, as I use to believe, but what happens is that the person loses their ability to sense pain and because of this lose of sensation the person damages themselves. Ill of getting burnt or stepping on a nail. The person does not feel the pain so infection starts which can cause gangrene and evidentially loss of digits and even limbs and if left untreated their very life

iv. Lepers were treated as outcasts during biblical times. If a person was determined to have leprosy they were made to live outside of the community in leper colonies. They had to wear black and wear a cloth around their mouth and caring bells and ring them and shout unclean if they were walking and saw other people coming close to them.

v. Today Leprosy is treatable but back then it was a death sentence.

vi. The Lepers had no hope of a cure. They were dead men walking.

vii. Before we accepted Christ as our Savior we were like these lepers Spiritually-we were dead men and women walking.