Whenever I see a picture of a bombed-out building—say in Ukraine or Gaza—my mind always goes to the absolute desperation family members must feel if they believe a loved one is trapped in the rubble. I recall the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City. Our family lived in California at the time. The bombing happened shortly after 9 am and, given that California is on Pacific Time, it was 7 am out there. So when we turned on Good Morning America, not knowing anything was up and I saw those horrific images from my hometown, I immediately feared this was going to become personal and that somebody I knew was feeling an incredible sense of desperation.
In 2 Kings 7 there’s a story involving desperation—one many of us aren’t familiar with, or if we’ve heard it we’ve forgotten it. Desperation is that point when someone’s need becomes greater than their fear of rejection or embarrassment … when they stop asking, “What will people think?” and start asking, “What do I have to lose?” However, I’ve come to believe that one of God's favorite ways of working to accomplish extraordinary stuff is through desperate people who are simply willing and courageous enough to take the next faithful step.
The city of Samaria has been besieged by the king of Syria. They’ve surrounded it and cut off all traffic in and out, preventing supplies from entering with the goal of starving the population into surrender. Because commodities are scarce, prices are soaring. The situation is dire—desperate. In fact, if you were to read the last couple of paragraphs of chapter six, some people resorted to cannibalizing members of their own family. They are feeling a desperation the likes of which we can’t imagine.
Their being in this situation was in large part the result of rejecting God and not upholding the covenant they’d made with him. What they were experiencing is something God had said they’d deal with if they turned their back on him. And the king of Samaria is deeply angry, but not with himself, the people, or their sin. He’s upset at Elisha—the prophet who had reminded them of what they could expect if they didn’t take God seriously. The king is blaming God for their circumstances and longs to take it out on the guy that served as His mouthpiece.
That brings us to ch. 7 where I want us to read …
Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: 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.” 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!” (v. 1-2)
God’s promise thru Elisha was that within twenty-four hours the economic situation would be completely turned around. But a skeptical official voiced his doubts to Elisha who said, “You just watch. You’re going to see it, but you won’t get to participate in it.”
At this point the story turns, and we’re introduced to the guys who will ultimately become the heroes. But they are an unlikely bunch.
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. (v. 3a)
Lepers, as you know, were ostracized and isolated—viewed as outcasts and untouchables. That’s why they were outside the city gate—the masses on the inside didn’t want to be associated with them for fear they’d contract the disease. So they couldn’t go inside the city, nor could they roam about … because there was an enemy that was positioned all around. They were stuck!
These lepers weren’t men of exceptional bravery and valor. They weren’t extraordinarily faith-filled. What they were was logical.
They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 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.” At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. (v. 3b-5a)
Their thinking made perfect sense. They’d soon die from the famine if they hung out by the city gate, and they’d be the last to receive any food that might become available. They decided their chances were better if they surrendered.
But look at what happens
When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 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!” 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. (v.5b-7)
It says in v. 5 that the men got up and began to make their way to the Aramean camp at dusk. And it says the Arameans heard the sound of an approaching army and got up and fled in the dusk, leaving everything behind. Four leprous guys, at dusk, decide to make their way to the Aramean camp in order to throw in the towel and surrender. But at that very same moment, in terms of what the Arameans heard, they believed the Samarian king had hired the Hittite and Egyptian armies to come to their defense, so they turned and fled.
The four leprous men were probably chatting about what they feared would happen when they arrived at the Aramean camp. But in terms of what the Arameans heard, it was the sounds of chariots and horses. Did the Lord put noise in the air to where they actually heard it, or did he simply create the perception in their minds? We don’t know. The text doesn’t say. But what we do know is the sensation was so widespread throughout the camp to they decided to bolt and leave everything behind. This place that had served as their supply center for months—which had been the home for probably thousands of men—became a ghost town … fully supplied, but totally empty.
You could say this is a coincidence. But as the old saying goes, “A coincidence is a miracle where God prefers to remain in the shadows”. I believe this fortuitous serendipity was actually a case of God choosing to work behind the scenes and guide the affairs of those men while opting not to reveal His direct hand.
Continuing on …
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. (v. 8)
Of course they did! These guys who were at the bottom of society’s totem pole—not to mention who’d been through an extended siege where people were becoming exceptionally desperate—when they walked into camp and saw the bounty the Arameans had left behind, they decided to take advantage of the situation. This was the answer to every prayer and hope they had. But …
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.” (v. 9)
While they rightly enjoyed the miracle God had provided, they also realized that attached to it was the responsibility to share their good fortune w/ others … that to remain silent and selfishly enjoy the blessings would be sinful. So they went back and reported to the gatekeepers who sent word along to the king who sent out a team to investigate their account. Given the lepers low place in society, the king wasn’t about to take their report at face value—their report could be a scam … a ruse. So he assembled a fact-finding task force and they reported back that it was true. And when news reached the community people’s ears, there was no stopping them. Given their desperate state, they stormed out to the camp to claim their share of the bounty. And that recalcitrant official died in the stampede.
This story obviously speaks to the responsibility we have as followers of Jesus to be mouthpieces of God’s goodness and grace. We aren’t responsible for outcomes, but we are responsible for sharing what we’ve discovered. In the lepers case, they could only communicate with the gatekeepers. But the news of what they discovered went from one person to another until it reached the king who put together the investigative team to verify it. Even though there were many people the lepers couldn’t speak to, they were faithful to speak to the ones they could.
But there’s another very practical lesson this story has to offer: God can use a small number of people to do some amazing things. God can use implausible people—those that are weak and frail—to do something far beyond what they’d ever think or imagine. Step back and look at this situation. You’ve got a city that’s desperate. They’re surrounded. They’ve been cut off to where supplies can’t get in or out. The prices of goods are skyrocketing. Some people are resorting to cannibalism just to stay alive. If you were going to strategize about how to turn around this situation, would you think four leprous men—social outcasts who journeyed to the surrounding army prepared to surrender—would be the channel God would use to effectuate a breakthrough? Absolutely not! Just goes to show that God can do some amazing things with a small group of unlikely people.
God used an eighty-year-old man who’d lived in seclusion for a number of years because he reacted inappropriately and killed a guy he’d seen assaulting one of his countrymen to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt and free them from centuries of slavery. God used Gideon—a guy who was hiding from the Midianites while threshing wheat—and an army of 300 men to defeat an army numbering in the thousands. God used David—a young man who tended sheep and had never been a part of a military campaign or fighting force to defeat a Philistine warrior and military champion by the name of Goliath. God used Elijah—a prophet who found himself standing alone at Mt. Carmel against the assembled prophets of Baal numbering in the hundreds—to prevail in a showdown designed to prove which deity was the true and living God. God used a young teenage girl—probably not old enough to have her learner’s permit—to bring to this planet the greatest gift the world has ever received. He used a little boy’s lunch numbering five loaves and two fish to feed a crowd numbering in the thousands. He used a dozen hicks from Galilee to unleash a revolution that is still changing the world to this day. And he used a misguided Jew who’d gone so far as to arrest people for their allegiance to Jesus to break the gospel out of Jewish circles and extend if to the non-Jewish world. Folks—God has a well-documented history of doing amazing exploits with a small number of people!
And … this ability on God’s part isn’t limited to the pages of the Bible. It isn’t something that was part and parcel of His modus operandi centuries ago that He’s decided to put behind Him and move on past. No! God can still do amazing things through a small group of committed and bought in people. The history of the formation and continuation of the church is the story of God using little things to do big things.
Right now I’m serving a small church in the panhandle of Texas as an interim pastor. It’s a church that has had some glory days in the past but has declined precipitously. Last Sunday there were thirty people in attendance. But, as I shared with them, our situation isn't Samaria. No one is starving behind city walls. But every church eventually finds itself at moments when the future seems uncertain, resources seem limited, and folks wonder what comes next. Those are precisely the moments when God loves to remind His people His power has never depended on numbers. God who has a habit of doing remarkable stuff through a small number of people. He has a habit of doing incredible things through folks that would surprise you to death.
Those four lepers never knew what God was up to when they took those first hesitant steps. They simply knew that staying where they were meant certain death, so they moved. And somewhere between the city gate and the enemy camp, God was already accomplishing what they could never have imagined. But it happened because they desperate enough they decided to do something about their situation rather than sit there and whine.
God has never needed large numbers to accomplish great things. He has always looked for people who are bought in and willing to take the next faithful step.