Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” 2 Kings 7:9
When Israel is under attack by the powerful Syrians and Israelites are starving, the despairing king of Israel decides to strike out at God by killing Elisha, Elisha tells that the next day the finest foods will be sold cheaply in the starving city. The pledge is kept when the Syrians hear a nonexistent army rushing down on them, panic, and abandon their camp with all its supplies.
Doubting God (7:2). The king’s officer went beyond “God won’t” to “God can’t.” As his fate illustrates (vv. 19-20), routers will discover that God can. But for them, it will be too late.
2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” And he (Elisha) said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
18 So it happened just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, “Two seahs of barley for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria.” 19 Then that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
The Lepers (7:9). This verse has been the basis for some of the history’s most powerful sermons on personal evangelism. We who enjoy God’s salvation and experience His grace are not “doing right” if we keep the Good News to ourselves.
3 Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die.”
9 Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
16 Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. 2 Kings 7:16
