2 Kings 7:3-4 (MSG). It happened that four lepers were sitting just outside the city gate. They said to one another, “What are we doing sitting here at death’s door? If we enter the famine-struck city we’ll die; if we stay here we’ll die. So let’s take our chances in the camp of Aram and throw ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.” 5-8 So after the sun went down they got up and went to the camp of Aram. When they got to the edge of the camp, surprise! Not a man in the camp! The Master had made the army of Aram hear the sound of horses and a mighty army on the march. They told one another, “The king of Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!” Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning tents, horses, donkeys—the whole camp just as it was—running for dear life.
Observation
For me, this is one of the most encouraging passages in the entire Bible. All through the Bible we see God using the unlikeliest of characters – the weak, the disenfranchised, the outcasts, the youngest, the oldest, the least qualified, and the one with the shakiest knees – to accomplish the impossible and reveal His glory, power, authority and nature to the world. These four seem to me to represent the bottom of the barrel from a human perspective.
Leprosy is a disease that is more than skin deep, which causes significant nerve damage as it progresses and, in the advanced stages, can even result in the loss of limbs or appendages (fingers, toes, nose, etc.). Lepers were pariah, outcasts, beggars, shunned by and forbidden to associate with the healthy. These four are sitting outside the city walls, exposed to the elements and unprotected from the enemy surrounding the city, almost certainly clothed in dirty rags. They know there is no hope to find any help or food from those within the city – why would starving people waste their precious limited resources on these hopeless, homeless, diseased beggars?
These four decide they have nothing to lose by approaching the enemy, who has been besieging the city until those within the walls are starving, to beg for some food (“let’s take our chances in the camp of Aram and throw ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.”). Understand, the city had thrown these four away as trash, considering them a burden, a drain on the extremely limited resources available, but God decided to demonstrate again the value and significance of each soul by making these the most unlikely of heroes, deliverers of an entire city. I have a picture of four weak, starving, limping men in filthy rags stumbling toward the enemy lines, hoping for either a handout or an end to their misery, with no idea that God is using them to set the city free. Only God could make them sound like a mighty army!
Impact on Me
This passage of Scripture always reminds me of two things:
- EVERY soul is significant and precious to God and
- It is only my willingness to go that limits what He can do in and through me.
Every soul includes not only the young, healthy and productive, but also the helpless, the homeless, those who face physical or mental challenges, who are impaired by the challenges of age or disease and, perhaps the most difficult for us to accept, those who do evil – terrorists, murderers, abusers, extortionists, cheaters, and the like.
God’s love extends to whosoever will come and I am not the judge of whom He will choose to show mercy or use to accomplish His will and purpose. I am called to love as I have been loved, give as freely as I have received, sow generously while allowing Him to be responsible for the results. I have often repented for resisting to obey His requests because I judged the cost to me to be too high or a wasted effort or outside my strengths; He is not asking me to approve His plan, His strategy or His use of resources, but rather asking me to trust and obey.
These four lepers are the very last people that any of us would choose to overcome the besieging army; they were hopeless, helpless, starving, homeless, and faced severe physical challenges as the result of disease. Despite all of this, God used them mightily because they got up and went. What can He do with me if I will be obedient to get up and go at His command regardless of how qualified, equipped or comfortable I feel about the assignment? I will only know if I commit to say “yes” before asking “what” and refuse to back out when the “what” seems too scary.
Prayer
Lord, I want to see with Your eyes, love with Your heart and trust You with all I am and have. I want to be courageous and go boldly where You send me, knowing that You go with me. Remind me always that I am the lantern, but You are the light; I am a vessel, but it is Your power, anointing, love, mercy, grace and peace that is to fill and overflow me. I never want to forget that the best I can bring to the table is my trust in and my obedience to You. You will equip me to do whatever You call me to do. I pray this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 