THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION
2 Kings 7:3-11
INTRODUCTION
Every day we make decisions. Some decisions we make without much thinking.
We get up in the morning. Eat breakfast, go to work. Some decisions are forced on
Us. Some decisions are just hard to make. Some decisions you just put off.
Samaria was under siege by the Aramean army. Nothing could go into the city and
Nothing could come out. The siege lasted so long that there was a famine in the city.
ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
V:3 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? 4 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.\”
- The 4 lepers were between a rock and a hard place. The city was on one side which they were prevented from going into. The Arameans army was on the other side ready to kill everything in sight.
- It was a life-and-death situation.
- It was a neglected situation.
- It was an isolated situation
- It was a lonely situation
- It was a situation where a decision had to be made.
- Sometimes God puts you in a situation where you have to make a decision.
- Sometimes, God leaves you on the outside so you can figure out how to get in.
- God gives you options.
- To stay put is an option.
- Go to the city was an option.
- Go to the enemy was an option.
- Some people are stuck where they are. They want make a decision.
- Not making a decision is a decision.
- To say you are stuck is a decision to do nothing.
- Doing nothing eliminates all opportunities for change.
- To go into the city was a poor choice because there was nothing to eat
Plus they would not be allowed in.
- To stay where they were was sudden death.
- In the Aramean camp was food and water and an opportunity to live.
- To go into the Aramean camp was also the possibility of death.
- The four lepers considered their options and made a decision to live.
- The human will to live is sometimes strengthen by suffering.
- The human will to live takes risk to live.
- The four lepers in their misery with sores all over their bodies and
Near starvation made a resolution to live.
- Sometimes God uses the prayers of others to bless your resolution.
- Inside the walls of the city Elisha prayed;
2 Kings 6:33-7:1
And [the king] said, \”This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?\”
Elisha said, \”Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.\”
( a shekel was 31 cents, seah was 7 quarts)
This was the answer to a prayer of the end of the famine and the immediate abundance to meet the needs of the city.
- Sometimes God uses your resolution for change to be the front line of blessings for a nation.
- God has a solution to your plan before you make the plan.
PUTTING THE RESOLUTION IN PRACTICE
V:5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, 6 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!\” 7 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.
- Nothing happens until you decide to put your plan in action.
- God is not going to do what He has given you the ability to do.
- God does what you cannot do.
- God has blessings ready to be given once you act.
- God will not act until you make up your mind to do something.
- Your decision not to move puts the blessings God has for you on hold.
- They decided to move at night, perhaps not to be seen.
- Once you get up and move, God removes all the difficulties in front of you.
- God works in ways unknown to you.
- God confused the mind of the enemy.
- He caused the enemy to hear the noise of a great army coming toward them.
- God put enough fear in the Aramean Army that they left camp on foot.
- While you are planning, God can prepare your enemy to bless you.
- While the lepers were coming to the camp, the
Enemy was running away from the camp.
- God will protect you on your journey to recovery.
- When the lepers got to the camp, what they feared most was gone.
- The four lepers were left to their own devices in mist of abundance.
- Your decision to trust God may be the blessings others need.
A RESOLUTION TO BLESS OTHERS
V:8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away 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.
9 Then they said to each other, \”We\’re not doing 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.\”
- The four starving men set out with the hope for a meal to satisfy their hunger
- When they got to the place designated by God they found abundantly more than they could have asked or conceived.
- God is a place of abundance.
- With their needs meet, they made a resolution to bless the city that left them To die.
- The human will is bonded by love and compassion to show mercy to others.
- When you have been blessed, take care of your needs first.
- The lepers took all they needed and hid it.
- Weaken with sore and hunger, they need to provide for their recovery.
- No matter how much they had, they were still lepers prevented from fellowship with others.
- They would be left outside the city to die.
- They were the first to be blessed by the Lord’s hand.
- The first will be last and last will be first
- It is the right thing to do to bless the poor in need.
- It is prudent to bless with speed without delay.
- Knowing the needs of the city, they blessed their community with their find.
- They were convicted in their heart to bless others.
- The character of a man is determined by how he acts under trial.
DO THE RIGHT THING
V:10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, \”We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there — not a sound of anyone — only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.\”
- The 4 lepers loved the Lord enough to bless a city that left them out in the cold.
- It does not make any difference what others do to you, it makes a difference what you do for others.
- We must realize that our blessings are part of God’s blessing for others.
- They were first to be blessed, so they had the pick over the choice of goods.
- The lepers were obedient.
- They stayed outside the city as required by the law
- They honored the mothers and fathers of the city with their generosity.
- According to the Pulpit Commentary,
There are three kinds of human helpers.
a. Those that help men by their will. These are men, the chosen of the race, who lay themselves out for philanthropic service.
b. Those that help men against their will. It often turns out, as in the case of Joseph\’s brethren, that our enemies really serve us.
c. Those that help men irrespective of their will. We are helped in many ways by those who know and care nothing about us. We come into possession of their knowledge, inventions, property. The property of the men of the last age is ours today.
- God knew their hearts, so He blessed the lepers with the responsibility of spreading the good news
IN SUMMARY
ACCESS YOUR SITUATION
CONSIDER YOUR OPTION
MAHE A RESOLUTION TO CHANGE
MAKE A RESOLUTION TO BLESS OTHERS
DO THE RIGHT THING
This story parallels the Gospel
We were born in a state of leprosy.
- We have a choice to join the world of sin which is death.
- We have a choice to stay where we are which is death.
- We have a choice to take a chance on Jesus which is death to the body but eternal life to
The soul with Jesus.
- Once with Jesus, we have the responsibility to spread the good news of the Gospel.
WHAT IS YOUR RESOLUTION?
We have a new apartment complex being built next to our church. It will be completed within the year.
WHAT PLANS SHOULD WE MAKE TO SAVE SOULS?
WHAT RESOLUTION SHOULD WE MAKE TO OURSELVES?
WHAT WILL BE OUR ACTION PLAN?
WHO WILL BE ON THE TEAM TO SPREAD THE GOSPEL?
WHO WILL LEAD THE TEAM?
WHAT CAN WE DO TO ATTRACT THE NEW COMMUNITY TO GOD? Rev. M. Mitc
I think we understand the passage in a very similar way….
The scene shifts to outside the locked gates of Samaria where four lepers lived in isolation). Nobody had told them about Elijah’s promise of food. They were discussing their precarious situation when they came to an insightful conclusion: if they stayed at the gate, they would die of hunger, but if they went to the enemy camp, they might receive some pity and some food. Even if the Syrians killed them, it was better to die quickly from a sword’s thrust than to die slowly from hunger. Lest they be observed from the city wall, they waited until twilight before going to the Syrian camp. Most of the camp would be resting and the lepers would have to deal only with some of the guards. But nobody was there! The Lord had caused them to hear a sound which they interpreted as the coming of a vast army, and the Syrians had left their camp as it was and fled twenty-five miles to the Jordan River, scattering their possessions as they ran (v. 15). The Lord had defeated the Moabites by a miracle of sight (3:20–23) and now He defeated the Syrians by a miracle of sound. They thought the armies of the Egyptians and the Hittites were coming to destroy them. The four lepers did what any hungry men would have done: they ate to the full and then looted the tents for wealth, which they hid.
However, as night came on, they stopped to have another conference and assess the situation. Why should an entire city be starving, and mothers eating their own children, while four dying men are selfishly enjoying the resources in the abandoned camp? Furthermore, when morning comes, the whole city will discover that the enemy has fled, and they’ll wonder why the men didn’t say something. When the truth comes out, the four men would be punished for keeping the good news to themselves.
It was night when they found their way back to the city and approached the guard at the gate. Since these four men lived just outside the gate, the guard must have known them. The lepers gave him the good news and he shared it with the other guards, and one of the officers took the message to the king. Once again revealing his unbelief and pessimism (3:10, 13), Joram said that the whole thing was a trick, that the enemy was hiding and only trying to draw the people out of the city so they could move in. That was how Joshua had defeated the city of Ai (Josh. 8). It wasn’t so much that he doubted the word of the lepers as that he rejected the word of Elisha. Had he believed the Word of the Lord, he would have accepted the good news from the lepers.
One of the officers had the good sense to reason with the king. Let some officers take a few horses and chariots and go investigate the terrain. If it all turns out to be a trick and they are killed, they would have died had they stayed in the city, so nothing is lost. The officer wanted five horses but the king let him have only two chariots with probably two horses per chariot. The men found the camp devoid of soldiers. Then they followed the escape route all the way to the Jordan River, a distance of twenty-five miles, and saw on the ground the clothing and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their flight.
The spies raced back to the city and shared the good news that the Syrian army was gone and their camp was just waiting to be looted. It was indeed a day of good news as the people found food to eat and to sell back in the city, not to speak of valuable material goods that could be converted into cash. But the main lesson isn’t that God rescued His people when they didn’t deserve it, but that God fulfilled the promise He gave through His prophet Elisha. Note the emphasis on “the word of the Lord” in verses 16–18
Thank you so much for your commenary. God puts people in places to bless us in our unbelief.
The four lepers were positioned out side the city to bring the good news of God’s blessings
Thanks
Look the way I see it is that the four lepers spoke an evangelistic truth in verse 9: “We are not doing right. This is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”Tatum, Scott L. “2 Kings.” The Teacher’s Bible Commentary.
One thing we see in the attitude of the 4 lepers, they were obedient to the law and had a comscience of doing the right thing.
They had a love to treat others with commpasion that was not given to them. as a result they were the first to be blessed by
God with goods left by the Arameans. The first will be last and the las will be first.
Thanks
I don’t know I mean the King was right to suspicious, Think about it this might have sounded like a tactic similar to that employed by his ancestors at Ai (Josh. 8:3–28). So, it makes sense that the king took the low-risk action of sending five of the remaining horses. Maybe, he could have sent some more but I sure the King was afraid this was a trick.
Thank you Mr Vince for your observation. We should not read too much into one event in the this passage. It is part of a larger
story. The King of Samaria had lost faith in the Elisha the prohet of God. He had been warned of the presence and location of The
Aramean army. He refused to listen thus putting all of Samaria in danger. A man without God is left to his own devises.
God sent the king another message from the 4 lepers that danger has past and he still was in a state of unbelief.
The lesson is trust God in all your trials.
Thanks
I wonder are these four lepers Gehazi and his three sons? What do you think? Am I on to something?
No, man I do not think so. Why? Because Gehazi was not yet a leper, that happen two year later in King 8:5.
Thank you brother bob. I believe God did not name the four lepers because He did not what us to focus
on who they were but rather the position thay were in that forced them to seek salvation.
In a sense we all came into this world as lepers. We were born in sin and shaped in iniquity.
God uses trials and tribulation to draw us to the conclusion that we need the saving the grace of Jesus.
Thanks
In my study of scripture, I have found that God does not tell us every detail of passages.
I believe it is so that we can deal with the real issues that affect our faith In Jesus.
to know their names would be insteresting. But he know the reason God gave us this story
is more important. I believe it is all about seeking salvation
Thanks
Yes, we all need to make decisions.
You know I haven’t been baptized, and maybe I should be? But, I question whether or not I need to be baptized by another person, or whether I can simply immerse myself in pool of water, or my bathtub?
Then again since I already believe maybe I do not need a water baptism?
Look at JOHN 3:16 what does it say? Read it what does it say? :
“For God in this manner loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him well never perish but will have eternal life”
Now, let me ask you a question.
Did you see anything about water baptism?
Did you?
No, you did not!
So, do you need baptism? no because we are not made right with God through “works of the flesh” but by belief in the one true God.
Thank you Mr Chapmanson. It is our confession of faith in Jesus that activates God’s spiritual baptism that saves.
The need for the water baptism is our obedience to Jesus command (Matthew 28:19). Again the water baptism is an
outward sign to world of the favor God has shown us.
Thanks
See Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-4 Galatians 3:26-27
Based on those passages we know that baptism is essential to salvation because it is when one’s sins are forgiven, when one receives the Holy Spirit, when one dies to sin, when one starts a new life, and when one becomes a child of God in Christ!!!
In other words, Baptism is the time and place that God forgives and saves.Thus, when it comes to salvation, baptism is not the what but the when. The moment when you receive God’s saving grace is the moment you emerge from the watery tomb of baptism.
Make the decision today before it is too late.
Mr Christian, thank you for your comment. I agree with you on your interpretation. Lets be perfectly clear to our readers
that the saving baptism is the spiritual baptism that takes place upon our confession of faith in Jesus. The Water baptism
is an outward sign to the world of God’s saving grace.
Thanks
Romans 6:3-5 shows that baptism is a “symbolic” rehearsal of Christ’s own death and resurrection, but also the death of the old sinner and the rebirth and promised resurrection of the new person that each one who is baptized has become in Christ.
Baptism or being immersed in water does not save!
Only GOD through Christ saves! But, those who are saved will desire to be baptized, and will be baptized as symbol and as public confession to their Christian Congregation of their faith.
Thank you Mr. Mcintosh.
I agree with you. Consider the thief on the cross with Jesus. He accepted Jesus as His Savior on the cross Friday afternoon and recieved
eternal life immediately without water Baptism. He was baptized spiritually in Jesus death.
The thief on the cross did not have a chance to show the world the inward change in himself. Yet he is at home with Christ.
We who are alive are commanded to let our light shine before men. We that in word and deed. One of the deeds is
water baptism as commanded by Jesus.
Thank you
Mr Mcintosh, thank you for you comment. We have the perfect example of being save without water baptism. Consider the thief
on the cross with Jesus Friday afternoon. He confessed his faith in Jesus on the cross. He recieved savation upon his
confession. He is with Jesus now. He did not have a chance for water baptism before his death. He was baptized in the spirit
We who are alive are also baptized in the spirit. The water baptism is an outward show to the world of thwe inward change.
We are obedient to God’s command
Thanks
For us Presbyterians we describe baptism as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace made by God through Jesus and extended to us. In baptism, God claims us as beloved children and members of Christ’s body, the church, washing us clean from sin as we renounce the power of evil and seek the will and way of God.
We recognized baptism as one of two sacraments initiated by Christ in Scripture. All four Gospels report the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan River (Matt. 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; John 1:29–34). When we are baptized with water in the name of the Trinity, we share in Christ’s own baptism
We celebrate baptism as a communal act of public worship.
Presbyterians practice both adult and infant baptism. Infant baptism expresses that it is God who chooses us for faith, discipleship, and salvation; without God, we have no power to claim these things for ourselves. However, we affirm that people come to faith at different stages in life, and recognize the baptism of older believers as an equally valid expression of the sacrament.
While pouring or sprinkling water upon the head is most common, Presbyterians also allow for baptism by immersion. Whatever the method, the deep significance of baptism demands a visible and generous use of water, conveying the lavish outpouring of God’s grace, filling believers with the gifts of the Spirit, and overflowing in lives of faithfulness, service, and love.
Can a person who is not baptized be saved? In a word, yes; but this by no means diminishes the importance of the sacrament. To insist on baptism as necessary for salvation would be to impinge on the limitless sovereignty of God, one of the essentials of the Reformed theological tradition. At the same time, baptism is an indispensable part of Christian life (Rom. 6:3–4), Christian identity (Gal. 3:27–28), and the church’s mission (Matt. 28:19).
Thank you Ms Walsh (i hope I got that right). I agree with you interpretation of scripture.
It in Ephesion 1:4 that Paul tells us that God Himself choose us in Jesus before the foundation\
of the earth.
We were all born in sin. It was God who drew us to Himself and gave us the mindset to to accept Jesus as
our personal Savior. From the moment of confession, were were baptized in the Spirit of Jesus and sealed
until the day of redemption.
Any person in Christ is a new creation. Therefore the water baptism is an outward sign of the inward change.
We honor Christ command when we are baptized in the water. Our obedience to the the water baptism is to the
Glory of God. In the great commision of Jesus we are told to make disciples first then baptize in the name
of the Father, Son And the Holy Spirit(Matthew 28:19).
The water baptism is a sign to the world that we belong to God. He is in charge of our lives.
Thank you so much
Thank you Seeker of the truth for you comment. If you have already accepted Jesus as your preson Savior
by confession of faith in Him, the spiritual baptism has takrn place. Upon your confession of faith you were
baptized into Jesus death and raised into the newness of life in His resurrection.
I believe out of obedience to Jesus you need the water baptism to show the world the new man in
Christ that your are. See 1 Peter 3:21-22
Thanks
Word! Rev. Mitchell you have done it, again! Looks like everyone has come out of their closets and caves to have their say. Now, I wonder why ‘action Jackson’ is missing in action this time around?
Hello Janet
I didn’t want to get involved in this controversy. I think we Christians need to consider what we share in common rather than mulling over the things that split us apart. And, in matters of dispute I think we should seek God with prayer, fasting, and deep study of God’s word.
The greatest thing about shared Bible Study is the discussions. We all have bring to the table out thoughts, wxperiences and education.
I believe the Holy Spirit guides our conversation. It is also my opinion that we learn from each other. It is in 1 Corinthians that the
apostle Paul warns us mot to argue scripture, but study to become unitfied in our thoughts.
I thank you Action Jackson for pushing prayer and Bible Study as the basic tools that lay the foundation for understanding of God’s Word.
We are all one with Jesud
Rev. M. Mitchell
I thank you Ms Williams for you continued love for God’s Word. I have been teaching God’s Word for over 30 years. One thing I know
is that each of us need to express our thoughts and opinions based on our study and interpretation of God’s Word.
None of us has the full story, But each of us has an important part of the story through the guidance
of the Holy Spirit. When we put all the pieces together we come a clearer understanding of God’s Word.
I love it. Let’s keep the converstion going
Thanks
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.