2 Kings 7:3-7 NIV Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. 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. 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.
2 Kings 7:3-7 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.
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
This is one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible! It ranks right up there with other miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, David and Goliath and Balaam’s talking donkey, but, additionally, this one speaks to me personally. We enter into this story as Ben-Hadad, king of Aram (Syria), has surrounded and besieged the city of Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, for an extended length of time. The situation inside the city is desperate and the food shortage so great that the people have resorted to cannibalism. The king of Israel (Joram, son of Ahab and Jezebel) bemoans his fate and blames God and His prophet Elisha. He sends men to murder Elisha, saying, “This trouble is directly from God! And what’s next? I’m fed up with God!” (2 Kings 6:33 MSG). Elisha makes the “impossible” prediction that by tomorrow, at the same time of day, the siege will be ended, the city will be saved and food will be plentiful. Needless to say, they don’t believe him!
Enter our four starving lepers. Leprosy is a progressive, degenerative disease that presents with white patches on the skin but also impacts the nervous system and, untreated, results in the loss of body parts (fingers, toes, skin, feet and so on). While “leprosy” is used to cover a multitude of skin diseases in the Bible, these four are isolated from the general population and probably ranked among the incurable, soon-to-be-dead. At the best of time, lepers were outcasts and valueless to this society, the lowest of the low. When they say, “Why stay here until we die?”, they recognize that they face death no matter what choice they make – stay put, go into the city, or surrender to the enemy.
So, here is the picture I see. These four sick, starving, scrawny, ragged men struggle to their feet, take up their crutches, and painstakingly hobble and stumble as they make their way in the gathering dusk toward the enemy camp in the hope of getting one last meal before they die (“If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.”). Now, the miracle! While I am sure their stumbling, staggering, shuffling progress was noisy, God struck fear in the hearts of the Aramean army by multiplying and magnifying these small noises into the sound of two fierce armies (Hittite and Egyptian) coming to attack them! In a panic, the entire Aramean army “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.” Only God could do such a thing!
Impact on Me
So, why is this story so special to me? Why does it impact me every time I return to 2 Kings 7 as powerfully as it does? Here are four people with no qualifications, skills, authority, influence, training, strength – really nothing to offer, considered valueless and discarded – who, in God’s hands were used to save an entire city. Their vision was very small, very limited, but hope got them up and moving to accomplish it. Whenever I am tempted to give up or pass on an opportunity for God to use me, I am reminded of these four. It is not my qualifications, skills, authority, influence, training or strength that God needs to accomplish His will and purpose. If He can save a city with these four, He can take my hope, my obedience birthed in my experience of faith, knowing I can trust Him to go with me. This give me confidence that He can magnify my small effort to make the enemy flee in terror. I need to step out of my possibility box and into His infinite possibilities.
Devotion
Lord, You are the Almighty, Holy, All-Powerful, only True God. I ask that You make me an instrument in the Redeemer’s hand, so that my small hope, faith, and obedience can be magnified by You into salvation, redemption, restoration for many and glory for You. Remind me that You will effectively use whatever I bring to the table, but You need nothing more than my conscious decision to be willing and obedient in order for You to accomplish Your will and purpose. I pray this all in the name of Jesus.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 