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A Swift and Sure Salvation
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there’s an old saying that most of us here are familiar with, and it’s almost always accurate. The saying goes like this: “If it’s sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” That’s not really cynicism as much as it is realism.
(Fee free to tweak this illustration): Anyone in Calgary who has shopped for bargains on Facebook Marketplace – you know this all too well. When you see a brand-new wicker patio set selling for $250.00, your heart skips a beat. What a great deal! But save yourself the frustration of asking if it’s available. There’s a thief behind a stolen profile, and all that thief wants from you (and the 50 other people who respond) is e-transfer a small deposit to hold the set, and then they ghost you and set up another scam.
So sadly, many of us have learned this lesson the hard way: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Now, applying this to our text, we ask, can we blame the king’s officer, and even the king himself for not believing the Good News that Elisha proclaims?
Can we blame them for not believing that in just 24 hours a city can go from being under siege, where the people were dying from starvation, where desperate mothers were eating their own babies to stay alive, where a donkey’s head was selling for a small fortune – to the good ole days when flour and barley were in plentiful supply, and there was no enemy at the gate?
That’s ludicrous, right? That’s impossible. They’d have to be crazy to believe that, right? Perhaps it would be crazy if the man who had proclaimed this Good News was someone other than Elisha, the Man of God. Perhaps it would be crazy if God was a liar. But this WAS Elisha, and Ellisha’s God is not a liar – His Word is always true.
So, when this true and faithful God proclaims the Good News to those living in the deepest darkness, the response should not be doubt or skepticism, but rather absolute joy and relief! While the Good News of salvation may sound too good to be true – it not only IS true, but it is the greatest and highest kind of Good we can ever imagine – as God saves us from sin and death and condemnation in a most amazing, marvelous and miraculous way.
Let’s consider the Good News tonight as we look at 2 Kings 7. Here Elisha Announces a Swift and Sure Salvation.
1. The Proclamation of the Good News
2. The Discovery of the Good News
3. The Sharing of the Good News
1. The Proclamation of the Good News
In our Scripture reading and sermon this morning we talked about the dark and desperate situation in Samaria. It was about as bleak and hopeless and horrific as one could ever imagine.
When I thought of the hopelessness in Samaria the passage that came to mind was Ephesians 2 – and how the Apostle Paul described our lost and hopeless condition.
He writes: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…What Paul meant by very simple. In our sinful condition, you and I have no hope, no chance of escaping our fate. We’re not almost dead – we are dead. Now consider the situation in 2 Kings 6-7. The people living in Samaria are besieged by a powerful Syrian army, and humanly speaking, they have no way of escape. They may be alive at the moment, but they have no hope. They’re as good as dead.
In his commentary on this passage, Philip Ryken wrote: “Famine had reduced the Israelites to absolute degradation and their king to utter despair. Samaria was the city of the living dead, in which mothers devoured their own children.”
But then, what does Paul say right after that in Ephesians 2:4? “But because of his great love for us God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions -- it is by grace you have been saved.”
That spiritual truth is essentially played out before us here on the pages of scripture. And how did God go about saving His people? First of all, God’s Servant Elisha was there among the people in the city. 2 Kings 6: 32 tells us that Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders of Israel were with him – perhaps he was counseling them.
But do you see what this means? This means that Elisha (who almost certainly had prophesied about the coming siege and devastation, who knew in advance about the great suffering that he and the others were about to endure), Elisha was right beside them. He experienced the same hunger, the pain. He witnessed the horrors, and he too was waiting for the day of deliverance.
In that way, is this not reminiscent of our Lord Jesus, God’s own son? Jesus didn’t remain in heaven, where it was comfortable, to try to save us from a distance. No. Jesus humbled himself and came down to live in the dust and dirt and mire of our lost world. And Jesus wasn’t born in a palace or to a household of wealth and means and privilege. No. Jesus was born of a virgin named Mary who was pledged to be married to Joseph, a carpenter.
Jesus was born in a manger, a home for cattle and donkeys; his naked shivering body was crudely wrapped in strips of linen. And Jesus did not indulge himself in the finest that this life had to offer. The Bible says Jesus had no place to lay his head; he suffered hunger and thirst and want. He knew what it was like to be tempted. Jesus mourned; he wept; grieved; he suffered – he was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
You see, in the ministry and person of Elisha, we foresee the One who is better than Elisha. The One who came to earth to suffer in our place, the One who is not ashamed to call us brothers, who came to bear our sin and guilt, all for the sake of our salvation.
As Elisha was sitting in his house, he was fully aware that the king’s officer was about to knock on his door, and that the king was right behind him. He even knows that the king wants his head. This is when the king expresses his frustration saying, “This disaster is from the Lord, Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
And that’s when Elisha proclaims the Good News: Hear the Word of the Lord: 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. But how was the Good News received?
Instead of rejoicing in the hearing of this Good News, instead of trusting in the Word of the Lord, and receiving it, and believing it, and thanking the Lord that the long-awaited deliverance had finally come -- the Good News was met with unbelief and cynicism. He basically said: that’s impossible. Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?
In other words, even if God dropped manna from heaven, this deliverance could never happen within 24 hours. Impossible! Yet, that’s when Elisha not only assured this officer of the veracity and the truth of God’s Word, but he also proclaimed God’s coming judgment upon him: You will see it with your own eyes, answered Elisha, but you will not eat any of it.
In the same way, on the Great and Final Day of the Lord, when Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation, everyone shall see it. All those ever born in this world shall see Christ and His kingdom come in all His glory and power -- believers and unbelievers alike.
Believers shall be welcomed in, and they shall taste of the sweetness of the New Heavens and the New Earth. Believers shall enter in and eat of the Goodness of the heavenly Cannan. But unbelievers shall not enter – nor shall they eat of it. Here is yet another call, yet another warning, that if we do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to cry out right now for God to give us faith to believe – that we may enter into Christ’s kingdom and not be condemned forevermore.
2. The Discovery of the Good News
Next, we consider the Discovery of the Good News. Who is it that first discovers the joy and blessing and the life giving fruit of the Good News? It is a group of outcasts – a group of unclean lepers of all people! Look at verse 3 and following. These lepers were outside the city gate – a terrifying place to be in the midst of a siege.
Due to their unclean condition, they were not permitted to go into the city and find refuge there, so they remained outside – huddled by the city gate, which would also expose them to the attacks of the enemy or to get caught in the deadly cross-fire between the two warring sides.
Notice, they too were without food. They were starving; they were dying. So, out of desperation, they weighed their option for survival. If we stay here, we die. If we try to go into the city, there is famine there, and we will die. But there is a third option: let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. Let’s throw ourselves upon their mercy. If they spare us, we live. If they kill us, we die – but we’re dead anyway. At least then our misery will be over.
So that’s what they did. Under the cover of dusk, at the end of the day, they went over to the Aramean camp. But when they arrived there, what they found was simply beyond belief. No one was there! Not a soul; not one soldier. What happened? Boys and girls, do you remember the story of those angels and chariots of fire that surrounded Elisha in Dothan? God used that invisible army to strengthen the faith of Elisha’s servant.
Here it seems that God used that invisible army again – only this time (vs 6) the Lord opened the ears of the Aramean army and he caused them to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, and the men were terrified! They said to one another: Look the king of Israel must have hired a great mercenary force – the Hittite armies and the Egyptians armies to attack us.
Just think of that a moment -- the sound of those heavenly chariots and horses and the army of heaven must have been so deafening, so terrifying and so convincing that -- to the last man -- those battle-hardened Syrians fled. (Look at vv. 7-8) They fled at dusk – so it must have been just moments before the lepers got there – and they left everything behind – even their horses and donkeys. They just turned tail and fled. They ran and ran – fearing for their lives!
And now, those four lepers, they were like kids in an all-you-can-eat-for-free candy store! They went from tent to tent, they ate, they drank, they carried away the gold and silver and clothes they found, they went off and hid them, and then went back for more!! This was beyond all belief! Again, notice the rich motif of salvation – the lepers also were as good as dead, marching toward the enemy, but now they had found salvation! Now they were not only alive, but they were rich beyond all measure. Instead of death, they found a paradise, of sorts!
The end of verse 9 says it all: They said to one another, “This is a day of Good News!!” And that it was! Philip Ryken picks up on this as well and he writes: “The story of Samaria is about the good news that God always brings his dying people. His children are desperate. They are trapped by evil circumstances. They are surrounded by fierce enemies. They are caught up in acts of wicked violence against one another. They're on the verge of extermination and cannot save themselves. So, to paraphrase the king of Israel, if the Lord does not help them, who can? But then the Lord does help them. Single handedly, miraculously, he drives away all their enemies. In his grace he feeds them, clothes them, and rescues them from death. There was bread for the hungry and life for the dead. A table is spread before them in the presence of their enemies. Thus, the people of God enter into the surpassing joy of finding good news.”
As great as this good news was for those lepers, the Good News of the Gospel is even greater. For God, in Christ, has saved not only us from death, God has not only rescued us from our enemy – by putting him on the run, by bruising the serpent’s head, by dealing a death-blow to our enemy – and God has opened to us the boundless storehouse of his spiritual blessings.
In John 1:16, John says about Christ -- For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. Each day we live, God pours out upon us blessings upon blessing. No, we’re not talking about material blessings of gold and silver and expensive clothing and eating the best of foods. Yes, God may grant us those as well, but spiritual blessings far outshine material blessings.
We’re talking about spiritual gifts like our adoption as sons and daughters; the knowledge and assurance that all of our sins and forgiven, that we’ve been made right with God – so we need never doubt our salvation or allow guilt to creep in and steal our joy. We have the comfort of knowing that because of what Jesus did for us, God is our heavenly Father, and He loves us and accepts us, and cares for us just as deeply, as completely as He loves His only begotten Son.
Finally, we also have the joy and hope of eternal security. Similar to those lepers (but in a far greater sense) we can live and die in the joy and comfort of knowing that we have nothing to lose in this world, and everything to gain in the next! We are not living this life to store up for ourselves riches and wealth and glory. Rather, we are living for Jesus, for His Kingdom, and we want to share the treasure of the Gospel, and the spiritual wealth of Christ’s Kingdom with everyone we know.
3. The Sharing of the Good News
That brings us to the third point: the Sharing of the Good News. When you think about it, that’s very nature of the Good News isn’t it? It’s meant to be shared! The lepers realized this as well. They made a few runs, pillaging the tents, taking all the loot they could carry – eating until they had their fill. But then they realize how selfish they are.
Look at the first part of verse 9: “Then they said to each other, we're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we're 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.”
Granted, their motive appears to be a little suspect –if the king or someone else discovered that they were out there just hoarding all this food and drink to themselves -- they would sooner or later be found out, and then they’d be put to death. But there’s more behind their motives than mere self-preservation.
Notice, they see the immorality, the sinfulness of keeping the good news to themselves; of not sharing this life-saving message with others in the city who were dying at that moment. Let’s just pause there a moment to ask: have we ever thought of sharing the Gospel in those terms? Have we ever been convicted of the immorality, the sinfulness of just living life, going our own way, not really caring that our neighbor, friends, co-workers are dying for their lack of knowledge?
Are we praying that the lost may be found, that the blind may see, that those who are dead in their trespasses may be made alive in Christ? And, are we engaging those unbelievers around us so that they may hear the Good News and be saved?
Thankfully, those lepers made haste to the palace to spread the good news. Verses 10-15 record how the Good News was reluctantly received. It was fact-checked of course – which is really sad because they had already been told by Elisha that God would rescue them, that the suffering would be over. But they are stubborn, and they had hard hearts. So, they must first make sure that the Arameans have fled.
Finally, in verse 16, after the report comes back that everything was as the lepers told them, that the enemy had fled and their tents were free to plunder – the people of the city storm out of the gate and they plundered the camp of the Arameans. Then, what Elisha had prophesied came to fruition: a seah of flour was sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley, sold for a shekel – just as the Word of the Lord had said.
That was not the only prophecy that came true that day. The king’s officer - -who dared to doubt the Word of the Lord, who called into question the ability of the Lord to do what He had said He would do – we saw with his own eyes that the siege was over, and that there was an abundance of food and wine again. But he never got the chance to taste it.
For the king had put him in charge of the gate – perhaps to try to control the flow of the people as they ran out of the city so no one got trampled. However, he himself was trampled underfoot by the people as they ran out of the city. So, the Word of the Lord was upheld – everything God said both good and bad – came to fruition.
Notice as well, that the same Good News that brought life to so many, also brought death to the man who rejected it. The same blessing, and the same consequence remain for all who hear the gospel today. For all who believe, the Gospel brings life, and joy, and hope, and eternal blessing. But to all who reject it – even this moment -- the gospel proclaims that you are still dead in your sin, and therefore, you are subject to eternal death and punishment and condemnation.
So may all who hear the gospel today – may we give ear; we may believe the Good News, that we may not die – but live – and enjoy the abundance of God’s kingdom forevermore. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Pastor Keith Davis, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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