TEXT: II Kings 6:23-7:20

SUBJECT: Elisha #13: The Triumph of Grace

There once was a king in Syria whose name was Ben-hadad. For some time he wanted to conquer the Jews, and now he meant to do it. He gathered a great army and marched on Samaria. When they got there, they didn’t attack the city, but something far worse: they surrounded it, letting no one in or out. Including the farmers, ranchers, shepherds, and fishermen who carried in the food.

It wasn’t long before the Jews were hungry, and then hunger gave way to starvation, and starvation to madness. A young woman called out to the king for help, but he had none to give. He was as hungry as anyone else. But it wasn’t food she wanted that day, but justice. You see, the day before she and her friend had struck a deal; she had kept her end of it, and she wanted the king to make her friend keep hers.

What was the deal? They were going to eat their babies! Yesterday they had cooked one child, and today, they were supposed to cook the other. But he had been hidden and the first mother demanded satisfaction.

The king was horrified by what had happened, and, for some reason, he blamed Elisha!

Policeman are sent to the prophet’s house, but they cannot get in because he’s ready for them and he has a strong—and maybe fat—friend hold the door against them. He’s not afraid of the king, but he wants him to do the dirty work himself.

It’s not long before he does. The king and his officers come to the house to lay hands on Elisha, but before they do it, he’s got a Word from the Lord:

‘By this time tomorrow, you’ll have more food than you know what to do with!’ One of the king’s men takes this for a stalling tactic or maybe a joke: ‘Why, if God opened the windows of heaven, we’d still be hungry!’

He didn’t believe the Word of God, and his unbelief is going to cost him dearly. There will be plenty to eat tomorrow, but this man won’t have a bite of it.

While all this is going on inside the city, there are some men living on the outside. They are lepers who are not allowed in, and they’re as scared and hungry as the people on the other side of the wall. One of the men has an idea: ‘We’re going to die one way or another, so why not give ourselves up to the Syrians, and, who knows? Maybe they’ll give us a last meal’.

So off they go to the Syrian camp. And nobody’s there. When the lepers saw this, they did the same thing you’d do: ate everything in sight and stashed away every useful and expensive thing they could find.

But then they got mugged by conscience. The Lord knows what they’re doing, and they won’t get away with it. They go back to Samaria, and yell out the news. When the king hears it, he doesn’t believe them, or thinks it is a trick. But one of his men says ‘We’ve got nothing to lose’. Several officers ride out to see what’s happening, and they find the lepers have told the truth.

The good news is proclaimed, the gates are opened, thousands run for the food, and that officer who said it couldn’t be done, was trampled to death.

Why did the Syrians leave? Because they heard an army marching on them and they panicked. What army was it? They thought the Hittites and the Egyptians were coming to get them, but, in fact, there was no army at all!

The Lord made them hear the horses, chariots, and soldiers who were not there. And so, that day, the Lord saved His people from their madness, death, and unbelief.

This is a story of judgment and grace. With grace coming out on top. For Christ’s sake.

The story takes place in and around Samaria. We can’t say what the political or military causes of the blockade were, but we do know the spiritual reason for it. The People were under siege because they were in sin. Not sins committed in ignorance and repented of as soon as they learned better, but willful sins, held on to for years--and getting worse by the hour.

The Lord called His People to repentance every day. He sent them prophets to warn them, blessings to win them, and mild chastisements to prove He was serious. But the nation turned a deaf ear to their God.

Till He spoke with the thundering voice of hunger! Long years before, God told His people what would become of them when they broke faith with Him,

This is the general punishment on their sin. But Leviticus 26:27-29 puts a finer point on it,

If anyone thought the misfortunes of war were an accident without meaning, the woman’s insane cry for more baby meat proved him wrong. The siege of Samaria was a Divine Judgment, full of meaning, and a meaning they could know right then and there! If Ben-hadad was commanding the troops in the field, the Lord was commanding then from heaven!

An attack can take a city in one day (or less). But sieges don’t work that way. They win by starving the enemy out, and this takes a long, long time. The People had months to think about their evil ways and to mend them. But nobody did. Everyone was hungry, but no one was sorry. Everybody wanted relief, but nobody wanted the Lord.

Least of all, the king. His name was Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, and few men have made their parents prouder than he did! Like his mom and dad, he was rotten to the core!

We first meet him a few years before when he, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom go to war against Mesha, Lord of the Moabites. The three kings hit on the brilliant plan of attacking from the rear, which requires an impossible march through the desert. When they’re about to die of thirst, he tells Elisha to do something about it! The prophet prays, the Lord answers him, the kings are saved, the war is won, and Jehoram repays the Lord by sticking to his idols.

Some time later, a Syrian army is captured by the Armies of Heaven. When the Syrians are disarmed and brought to the king, he thinks massacre!

And he keeps getting worse. When Samaria is ringed by its enemies, he doesn’t cry out to God for mercy, he blames Him! He’d love to cut off God’s head, but of course, he can’t. So he settles for taking the head off His prophet!

The king was an ingrate, a fool, and a criminal.

His officers were no better. When the Good News is spoken, no one believes it, and one man makes a mockery of it.

Heaven was shouting to earth, and nobody was listening! The goodness of God was not leading them to repentance. And His severity wasn’t either.

If you or I were writing the story, it would end in judgment. The gates would come open, the Syrians would swarm in, and the slaughter would be on. If someone called us ‘heartless’, we’d have the verses to back us up. Proverbs 29:1, for instance,

But, as I told you a few minutes ago, this is a story of judgment and grace. With grace coming out on top!

Though the people inside the walls of Samaria are not fit for God’s grace, He gives it to them anyhow. Do you know why? Because He is sovereign.

We often ask why the Lord would harden anyone; we wonder how this squares with His goodness and human responsibility. These are hard questions, and I will not try to answer them, except to say this: the really hard question is not, ‘Why does He harden someone’, but rather, ‘Why does He have mercy on anyone?’

Why did He save Samaria when it was stubbornly against Him? Why did He feed the Israelites when they said He couldn’t do it? Why did He spare Jonah who’d rather be in hell without the Ninevites than in heaven with them? Why did He convert Paul when he was persecuting Him? Or, to bring it closer to home: Why did God commend His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us?

The only answer we have is also the shallowest, and the one that won’t satisfy inquiring minds. Our Lord Himself gave it to us—and no more.

We don’t compete for Grace, qualify for Grace, win Grace, or do nothing to hinder Grace. It comes to us like the rain—straight from heaven. And, not only does it come to us undeserving, it stays with us undeserving! We don’t get it—or keep it—by being good. We get and keep it because God is good.

His grace came to Israel—and it comes to us—through Christ. He’s not mentioned in our verses, but He doesn’t have to be. For every spiritual blessing is in Him. And the rescue of Samaria is one of them. Your conversion is another. And every help you get in this life is another.

In the Second Volume of his set, Promise and Deliverance, the Dutch Reformed scholar, S.G. DeGraaf comments,

Two things need underlining: He looked upon His people in the Christ. Why are we acceptable to God? How come we’re not condemned? Why don’t we sin away His favor? Why does He still love us when there’s nothing lovely in us? It is because we are in Christ.

Adam was called to name the animals. Whatever he called them they were. But God names the people. Whatever He says we are we are. But what does He say we are? He says we’re in Christ, and that’s where we are, what we are, and who we are! If you’re a Christian, you’re not an overweight person, you’re not a high school dropout, you’re not a divorcee, you’re not a homosexual, you’re not an unwed mother, you’re not a man without a job, and you’re not an immigrant without a country!

You’re a child of God and a brother or sister of Christ. Even when you mess up! This means,

The other thing I thought striking in DeGraaf’s commentary is this: God bestows unsolicited grace…that we might be shattered by it. This is what unbought grace does for it: it shatters us. We can’t believe it! Why me, Lord? Of all the People You could have been gracious to, why did You choose me? The answer doesn’t come through the mouth or the pen, but by way of the tear ducts!

I cannot end the sermon without noting the evangelists who brought the Good News to Samaria. Elisha said, ‘Salvation is coming’. But they were the lepers who said, ‘Salvation is here and free for taking!’

The unlikeliest men were called to Preach the Gospel. At first they didn’t want to. Because they were self-centered. But then it occurred to them: Good News is for everyone! If they knew what God had done for His People, He wanted others to know as well. So they told them—and everybody in town—except the one officer—got all he wanted.

The treasures of God are ours—all we want of them, and more. But they’re not only ours. They belong to the world. So let’s get out there and tell them what the Lord has for them.