HE IS FOR YOU!
Opening Prayer
Lord God, open my mind and heart to your Word today. I need it to dwell in me richly so that I can follow you more closely and share its wisdom with others.
Read 2 KINGS 6:24 – 7:2
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Famine in Besieged Samaria
24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab[b] of seed pods[c] for five shekels.[d]
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
27 The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” 28 Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”
She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”
30 When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth on his body. 31 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”
32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” 33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.
The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
7 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah[e] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel[f] and two seahs[g] of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”
“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, about 2 pounds or about 920 grams
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, probably about 1/4 pound or about 100 grams
- 2 Kings 6:25 Or of doves’ dung
- 2 Kings 6:25 That is, about 2 ounces or about 58 grams
- 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 12 pounds or about 5.5 kilograms of flour; also in verses 16 and 18
- 2 Kings 7:1 That is, about 2/5 ounce or about 12 grams; also in verses 16 and 18
- 2 Kings 7:1 That is, probably about 20 pounds or about 9 kilograms of barley; also in verses 16 and 18
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What good things has God done for you this week? How can you thank him?What a dramatic change. In Saturday’s passage the king of Israel trusted Elisha’s words. In today’s passage he appeared to blame Elisha (v. 31) for the siege and
the suffering. To his credit, the king was distressed by the story he heard of women eating their children (v. 30), but rather than take responsibility, he declared that God had caused the disaster (v. 33b). The king considered that Elisha, as God’s messenger, shared the blame (v. 31).
When our disasters come, how do we react? Do we accuse the Lord of being the cause of our trouble? Or do we go to him for comfort, for guidance, for wisdom, and in hope of a miracle? It depends on what we believe deep down about God. Although he’d previously seen God act for the good of Israel, the king believed that the Lord was against him. Elisha, on the other hand, had confidence that God would bring the siege to a miraculous end (7:1, 2). He knows that the Lord is for Israel.
Do you remember in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when everything seemed scary and dark? Many churches, groups, and nations recorded versions of a song called ‘The Blessing’ which carried a message we all desperately needed to hear: he is for you!
Apply
‘In the morning, in the evening / In your coming, and your going / In your weeping, and rejoicing / he is for you, he is for you …’*
Closing prayer
Loving Father, no matter in what circumstance I find myself, help me to cling to the reality that you are for me—always.
*’The Blessing’, Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes 2020
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