I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord! (vs. 13-14)
The people of Samaria were starving. Not only had they resorted to eating dove poop and donkey's head, they had to pay for the privilege. Aram's King Ben-Hadad conquered them before he realized he had attained a problem. While he was surveying the city in his ride along the top of its wall, a woman cried out to him for help.
"If the Lord doesn't help you, how can I?" he yelled back to her. "I cannot fill the threshing floor with food or the winepress with grapes!" Then, wouldn't you know, he asked: "What is your problem, anyway?"
Turns out she had boiled her son the day before to feed herself and her starving neighbor. They were supposed to eat the neighbor's son on this day, but the mother had hidden him.
Sick to his stomach with grief at their having resorted to such savagery, the king tore his clothes and walked along the wall in sack cloth to display his sorrow. Then he proclaimed that he would kill Elisha, the prophet, for this heinous famine. To accomplish this, the king sent a messenger to Elisha's house.
Prescient, Elisha locked him out. When the messenger arrived, he yelled through the bolted door: "This trouble has come from the Lord," says the king. "Why should we wait for the Lord any longer?"
"You want to know what the Lord says?" cried Elisha to the messenger. "This is what He says: 'About this time tomorrow seven quarts of fine flour will be sold for two-fifths of an ounce of silver, and thirteen quarts of barley will be sold for two-fifths of an ounce of silver. This will happen at the gates of Samaria.' "
"Ha!" the officer cried. "Even if the Lord opened up windows in the sky, that would not happen!"
Ooops! He should not have said that. He was summarily excused from the experience.
Now it did look as though there was no hope. God had not done anything yet. People were resorting to their own cruel, unthinkable fixes for the problems associated with the drought. Waiting did not seem to do any good. So, they decided to forget Him and take matters into their own hands.
Four leprous beggars who lived in the desert outside the city walls were God's answer to the hunger problems of the Samaritans. Ha!!! Love my God! Who would expect the absolutely unexpected to happen. Four men who knew they were going to die anyway find themselves ready to surrender to the enemy camped just a little way from the Samaritan city. But when they arrive at camp, it is deserted. The army foiled by a heavenly ruse. There is plenty to eat. Plenty to drink. Silver in abundance. New clothes to wear. A treasure trove just waiting to be pilfered for the people of God.
Back to the city wall they go, after having hidden some loot for themselves and filling their own bellies with rations left behind. In the stampede of citizens rushing to the bounty of the enemy camp, the officer from the day before...remember, the one who said God couldn't do what Elisha pronounced?...was crushed to death. He did not see the goodness of God in the land of the barely living. But everyone else did. Because they waited. Forced to, you say. Yes. But when the king was ranting and the woman eating her own flesh, God was twenty-four hours away from blessing them. Twenty-four hours. Using the filth of humanity, as far as the citizens were concerned. An unexpected way. Out of paradigm. More miraculous, actually, than opening up heaven. He fixed it in the "land of the living." In the context of an ordinary day. The flow of life bringing the answer to a problem we deemed unfixable....even with heavenly, extra-terrestrial intervention.
"Wait, I say, on the Lord!" Could He ask anything harder? We are hungry. We are ill. We are abandoned. We are broke. We are fearful. We are lost. And He says, "Wait." What is our alternative, really? Eating our children? That is not God's plan. The man with faith heard from His God. The man who stayed close to Him knew His God would answer. Hold on....wait. Let your heart take courage. Be strong. Your God knows your needs before you ask and He is about coming to your aid. Be careful about what happens to your heart when you ask: "Why should I wait on the Lord any longer?" Before you kill the prophet or devour your own destiny, go again to God for the strength to wait and the wisdom to discern what He is doing in your life.
"Wait, I say, on the Lord!"
The people of Samaria were starving. Not only had they resorted to eating dove poop and donkey's head, they had to pay for the privilege. Aram's King Ben-Hadad conquered them before he realized he had attained a problem. While he was surveying the city in his ride along the top of its wall, a woman cried out to him for help.
"If the Lord doesn't help you, how can I?" he yelled back to her. "I cannot fill the threshing floor with food or the winepress with grapes!" Then, wouldn't you know, he asked: "What is your problem, anyway?"
Turns out she had boiled her son the day before to feed herself and her starving neighbor. They were supposed to eat the neighbor's son on this day, but the mother had hidden him.
Sick to his stomach with grief at their having resorted to such savagery, the king tore his clothes and walked along the wall in sack cloth to display his sorrow. Then he proclaimed that he would kill Elisha, the prophet, for this heinous famine. To accomplish this, the king sent a messenger to Elisha's house.
Prescient, Elisha locked him out. When the messenger arrived, he yelled through the bolted door: "This trouble has come from the Lord," says the king. "Why should we wait for the Lord any longer?"
"You want to know what the Lord says?" cried Elisha to the messenger. "This is what He says: 'About this time tomorrow seven quarts of fine flour will be sold for two-fifths of an ounce of silver, and thirteen quarts of barley will be sold for two-fifths of an ounce of silver. This will happen at the gates of Samaria.' "
"Ha!" the officer cried. "Even if the Lord opened up windows in the sky, that would not happen!"
Ooops! He should not have said that. He was summarily excused from the experience.
Now it did look as though there was no hope. God had not done anything yet. People were resorting to their own cruel, unthinkable fixes for the problems associated with the drought. Waiting did not seem to do any good. So, they decided to forget Him and take matters into their own hands.
Four leprous beggars who lived in the desert outside the city walls were God's answer to the hunger problems of the Samaritans. Ha!!! Love my God! Who would expect the absolutely unexpected to happen. Four men who knew they were going to die anyway find themselves ready to surrender to the enemy camped just a little way from the Samaritan city. But when they arrive at camp, it is deserted. The army foiled by a heavenly ruse. There is plenty to eat. Plenty to drink. Silver in abundance. New clothes to wear. A treasure trove just waiting to be pilfered for the people of God.
Back to the city wall they go, after having hidden some loot for themselves and filling their own bellies with rations left behind. In the stampede of citizens rushing to the bounty of the enemy camp, the officer from the day before...remember, the one who said God couldn't do what Elisha pronounced?...was crushed to death. He did not see the goodness of God in the land of the barely living. But everyone else did. Because they waited. Forced to, you say. Yes. But when the king was ranting and the woman eating her own flesh, God was twenty-four hours away from blessing them. Twenty-four hours. Using the filth of humanity, as far as the citizens were concerned. An unexpected way. Out of paradigm. More miraculous, actually, than opening up heaven. He fixed it in the "land of the living." In the context of an ordinary day. The flow of life bringing the answer to a problem we deemed unfixable....even with heavenly, extra-terrestrial intervention.
"Wait, I say, on the Lord!" Could He ask anything harder? We are hungry. We are ill. We are abandoned. We are broke. We are fearful. We are lost. And He says, "Wait." What is our alternative, really? Eating our children? That is not God's plan. The man with faith heard from His God. The man who stayed close to Him knew His God would answer. Hold on....wait. Let your heart take courage. Be strong. Your God knows your needs before you ask and He is about coming to your aid. Be careful about what happens to your heart when you ask: "Why should I wait on the Lord any longer?" Before you kill the prophet or devour your own destiny, go again to God for the strength to wait and the wisdom to discern what He is doing in your life.
"Wait, I say, on the Lord!"
No comments:
Post a Comment