There’s a wonderful story in 2 Kings 7 about four lepers. This account takes place during a time of famine. People were starving and under siege, and God used these four lepers. Beginning at verse one, “Elisha said, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: “Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’”
Now that’s a bargain price. That’s like me saying, “At this time tomorrow, gasoline will be a dollar a gallon, a gallon of milk will be a dollar and a quarter, and a loaf of bread will be fifty cents.” That’s about how relative this is.
2 Then the officer who was close to the king answered Elisha, “Even if the Lord opened windows in the sky, that couldn’t happen.” 3 There were four men with a skin disease at the entrance to the city gate. They said to each other, “Why do we sit here until we die? 4 There is no food in the city. So if we go into the city, we will die there. If we stay here, we will die. So let’s go to the Aramean camp. If they let us live, we will live. If they kill us, we die.”
In other words, “What have we got to lose? Let’s at least do something!” Sometimes I want to say that to Christians. “You know, just do something!” Because too many in the church are doing nothing.
“Well, I don’t know what I’m called to do.” You probably never will until you do something! Just do something. Do something. You’ll find the fit. Their mentality was, “If we stay here we’ll die, if we go out there, we’ll die. If we go to the Syrian army we might just have half a chance at living. Maybe they’ll take us prisoner, and then we’ll live and they’ll feed us.” So they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians, and when they got to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, much to their surprise, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the army to hear the noise of chariots, horses, and that of a great army. But if you study this, there was no great army that they could have been hearing because Israel certainly didn’t have such an outfit at that time.
8 When the men with the skin disease came to the edge of the camp, they went into one of the tents and ate and drank. They carried silver, gold, and clothes out of the camp and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent. They carried things from this tent and hid them, also.
I preached this message many years ago, but this time I saw something that I had never seen before. What did they do with the stuff? They came back from another tent and carried some from there also, and then what did they do?
9 Then they said to each other, “We’re doing wrong. Today we have good news, but we are silent. If we wait until the sun comes up, we’ll be discovered. Let’s go right now and tell the people in the king’s palace.” 10 So they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city. They said, “We went to the Aramean camp, but no one is there; we didn’t hear anyone. The horses and donkeys were still tied up, and the tents were still standing.” 11 Then the gatekeepers shouted out and told the people in the palace. 12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I’ll tell you what the Arameans are doing to us. They know we are starving. They have gone out of the camp to hide in the field. They’re saying, ‘When the Israelites come out of the city, we’ll capture them alive. Then we’ll enter the city.’"
Anyway, here’s the long and short of it. He sent a contingency, they find the camp, they get all the stuff, and the price of bread goes down by the next day, just as the man of God said it would be. The gatekeeper who questioned the ability of God got trampled. He saw the treasure, but didn’t get to partake in it.
But here’s what I got to thinking about last night. I can’t help but consider those four lepers, four outcasts, four people in society who don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades of accomplishing any success. These are four so-called “losers” who were considered human trash. They sat at the gate and hoped that somebody would have pity on them and throw a few crumbs. Four losers who said, “Hey if we stay here we die, if we go there, we die, let’s do something! LET’S DO SOMETHING! It just might be that God will bless it!” They go, find the deserted camp intact, and start eating and drinking.
They saw all those nice clothes that they’d never owned. We’re not talking Wal-Mart, this is the caliber of Macy’s and Nordstrom’s . . . the fine clothing of the Syrians. They’re eating and drinking. It occurs to them, “Man, let’s take some of this stuff, whoa, silver and gold.” They take it out and hide it. Then they go to another tent, empty it out, then take that stuff and hide it, too. Suddenly, they feel guilty! “Wait a minute; we can’t keep all this for ourselves while people are starving back in the city. Let’s let it be known.” They go and tell the king.
What happened to the stuff they hid? I think I know. I bet they went back and got it! That was an opportunity for them because if they would have left themselves at the mercy of the King, they may or may not have been rewarded. But they recognized the moment of their opportunity. Their opportunity transcended their own lives. They were able to bless their entire community. When your eyes are focused on blessing the entire community, God has treasure hidden for you, and you will not suffer lack!
~ PG
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