TRUSTING HIS WORD
Opening Prayer
My God, I am so thankful for your Word, for its message of love, assurance, and hope. I am thankful, too, for the ways that you speak to me through it, changing me so that I can bring you glory.
Read 2 KINGS 7:3–20
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Siege Lifted
3 Now there were four men with leprosy[a] 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.
12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”
13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”
14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” 15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 7:3 The Hebrew for leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin; also in verse 8.
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
Are there places where you are tempted to not let God be God—where you give him less than the credit he deserves?While there are plenty of lessons we can draw from this passage, verses 19 and 20 clearly contain the moral the writer wants us to take from the story. The earlier
exchange between Elisha and this servant (7:2) is retold and we are encouraged to reflect on the fulfilment of Elisha’s words. I love how many times it is pointed out that this is what God had promised would happen (vv. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20), to make sure that we get the message. It was an unpleasant conclusion for the officer concerned (v. 17), but why is his death our lesson? The officer’s sin was to doubt God, to suggest that God’s word through Elisha could not be trusted.
The king, too, struggled to accept that God could have worked a miracle overnight, even though Elisha had told him it would happen (v. 12). His suspicious mind caused him to create other possible reasons for the Arameans’ departure. Often, our tendency, too, is to be suspicious or doubtful when something good happens unexpectedly, especially when we have lost hope as the king had. Perhaps we don’t see miracles often enough to expect them like Elishadid (v. 1). Let’s try to make a habit of thanking God when he intervenes on our behalf.
Apply
Which Bible promises are most significant for you right now? Maybe it’s because you’ve seen them fulfilled, or perhaps because you are clinging to them. Take time to meditate on them now, thankful that they are still true for you today.
Closing prayer
Lord God, no matter what are my circumstances, help me to boldly stand in your promises, confident in your good purposes for me.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.