Day 175

2 Kings 6:1–7:20; Acts 15:36–16:15; Psalm 142:1-7; Proverbs 17:24-25

IN OUR READING from 2 Kings today, the Arameans besieged Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel. Things had gotten so bad that the people in Samaria were consuming the dead to sustain themselves. The prophet Elisha made an impossible claim: “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” (2 Kings 7:1). No one believed Elisha. How could they, with the barbaric disaster they were facing?

Meanwhile, four leprous men sat at the city gates, waiting to die, when a plan emerged:

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.

When the leprous men reached the edge of the Aramean encampment, they discovered that it was still. Everyone was gone. At God’s command, the Arameans heard what sounded like a mighty army they thought had been hired to rescue Samaria, and they fled, leaving everything behind. The camp looked like a Bedouin ghost town. The men entered one tent after another, feasting and collecting treasure that they quickly hid.

Finally, they said to one another, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone!” (2 Kings 7:9). The next day, Samaria was replenished exactly as Elisha had prophesied.

We should take a moment to consider what the leprous men said to one another as they feasted and hid treasure. In a metaphorical sense, we also have lived in a world under siege. We have seen the barbarity of humanity at its worst. But God came in person to initiate a rescue of humanity through Jesus, and all too often, we play the role of the leprous men in this story —we feast on and hide within the treasure of the gospel. Let’s pay attention to their conclusion: “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone!” How will you share the good news of rescue and redemption today?

MEDITATION:

When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.