It's A Day of Good News
Opening Prayer
Lord, remind me today that what You say You will, in fact, do and that I can really trust that.
Read 2 Kings 7:3-11
[3] Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? [4] If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” [5] At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, [6] for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” [7] So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. [8] The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. [9] Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.” [10] So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there-not a sound of anyone-only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” [11] The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
Reflect
What important thing did these four lepers finally realize?The king of Israel and the prophet Elisha are at loggerheads. The Israelites have been besieged by the king of Aram for so long that in desperation a woman even ate her own son. Now the king of Israel declares that he won’t wait for the Lord any longer (2 Kings 6:33—7:2). As you read, the king and his officer will soon see what God does! I love this story. The leprosy sufferers are in the worst position: isolated because of their health; vulnerable as they are outside the city wall; and excluded from worship due to their uncleanness. Yet they are the first to see God’s victory! What is even more amazing is that they recognize that, “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news, and we are keeping it to ourselves” (9). This moment of history functions like a parable, the story illustrating the lesson that God will do what he has promised; that even the most vulnerable and rejected are not outside saving faith; that if we keep the good news of what Christ has done to ourselves then, “this is not right.”
Apply
Reflect on this story and on the lesson(s) that God is teaching you, or reminding you about today.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, I know it’s not right to keep Your Good News to myself. It’s for sharing. Show me how I can best do that.
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