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Colin Smith: The story itself really revolves around three characters. There are lepers who are blessed beyond measure and then think only of themselves. There is the king who hears the good news and then doubts it, and then there's this captain who resolutely refused to believe.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad that you're listening today. You may have heard us say sometimes on the program that the gospel is good news, and we're going to look at a story that has some good news in it today, Colin. How we respond to good news is not universal across the board; people respond in different ways. For the person who maybe has heard the gospel and they're not really sure how to respond, how might today's program be helpful?

Colin Smith: Well, as we said at the top of the program, there really are three characters in the story that we're looking at today, and I think the challenge is which one do you identify with. They're very, very different. There is a captain in the story who refuses to believe. There will be some people who are listening to the program today who have heard the gospel and you know that this is your reality. You've simply refused to believe it. You have many friends who are Christians, but you've taken your stand that "this I do not believe."

I really hope and pray that as you listen to the Word of God on the program today, you're going to move from that. You are going to see that that is a position that nobody ultimately wants to remain in, and that you will come to open your mind and your heart. Then there's another character in the story who hears good news and then just doubts it and so does not get the benefit that could be his. There's so much that you're missing out on if that's you.

What I want you to see today is that those who believed and received the good news entered into the most marvelous blessing and then were able to share it with others. I hope that this story about three people in very different positions will bring us to the place where we make a believing response to the gospel, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: Let's look at this together. From 2 Kings Chapter 7, we begin a message called "God Will Bless Us." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: This is the last message in our series on the life of Elisha, and we have a marvelous story today to end the series. The background to the story we're looking at today begins in 2 Kings 6:24, where we read that afterward, Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. Afterward, well, after what? The answer is after God had blessed the king of Syria.

You remember that the king of Syria's commander, a man by the name of Naaman, was wonderfully, miraculously healed of leprosy by the Lord. You remember that the king of Syria's troops were led into Samaria, where they were delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, and he gave them a feast and then sent them home without any harm coming to them at all. The king of Syria had been greatly blessed. We've seen that in the series, but his response to the kindness he received was to muster an entire army to besiege Samaria.

This was something new. We've seen in the series that previously, the king of Syria's tactics had been to send raiding parties, bands of raiders over the border. Last week, we saw that after the failed attempt to arrest Elisha, these raiding parties ceased. Afterward, we're now being told the king of Syria embarked on a new plan. His new plan was total war. Everything he had was thrown into a single campaign. He mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria.

The tactic in a siege, of course, was to form a camp around the walls of an entire city so no one could get into the city and no one could come out from the city. When there was a siege, it wasn't long before food was in short supply, and you don't need a degree in economics to know that when supplies are low, prices go up. We're told in Chapter 6:25 that there was a great famine in Samaria as they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver. There's not a whole lot of meat on a donkey's head, and if you had one, you wouldn't particularly want to eat it, but these people were absolutely desperate, and the currency had collapsed completely.

In any disaster, people look for someone to blame, and the king of Israel put the blame on the prophet Elisha. Notice Chapter 6:31: "The king said, 'May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.'" Remember that Elisha had saved the king's life many times, but now the king is vowing to take the life of Elisha, and he sends an executioner to carry out his command.

You really have to feel for Elisha. Last week, there was an enemy king sending a whole army to arrest him, and now this week in the story, we're seeing that his own king is sending an executioner to kill him. The sinful heart is hostile toward God, and that hostility of the sinful heart may sometimes be covered over by a certain civility, but we should never be surprised if the hostility of the sinful human heart spills over onto the people of God. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first."

God revealed to Elisha the prophet that the executioner was coming. He was sitting in his house with the elders all around him. He said to them in Chapter 6:32, "Do you see how this murderer"—he's referring to the king—"has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?"

Of course, the executioner's master was the king himself. Elisha says, "When the executioner comes, you hold the door against him. Don't let him in. Hold the door fast because the king himself is coming immediately behind the executioner." Why was the king coming after the executioner he had sent? Was he following him because he had changed his mind in regards to this murderous command, or was he following him in order to make sure that his command was actually carried out? We're not told.

What we know is that the king caught up with the executioner, and so now there is a confrontation, a standoff if you like, at the door of Elisha's house. Try and picture this. On one side, standing in the doorway of Elisha's house, you have Elisha and around him, you have the elders. Outside, you have the king and the executioner who he has sent. Then you have another man, very important in the story, a man who is described here as the captain. Verse 2 of Chapter 7: "The captain on whose hand the king leaned."

The captain, in other words, was the king's chief advisor. He was the person that the king looked to to guide him in all of his decisions. Here you have this confrontation, and in this dramatic moment, Elisha makes the most amazing prophecy. Chapter 7:1: "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: 'Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.'" Simply translated: God says there will be plenty of food tomorrow.

Notice Elisha emphasizes this is the word of God. Twice he says, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord." When the king hears this astonishing prophecy, he postpones the execution. An abundance of food at the city gates tomorrow? Let's at least wait and see. But the captain, the man on whose hand the king relied, was not at all impressed. I expect that he thought that Elisha was simply making this up to try and buy some time and postpone his own execution.

So we read in Chapter 7:2 that the captain said to the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" There's real cynicism there. You see what he's saying? "Elisha, you're telling us that there's going to be an abundance of food in this famine-struck city tomorrow? How could any rational person believe what you are saying? What you're saying is something that even God himself couldn't do." He defies and blasphemes the name of almighty God, and he refuses to believe. Elisha said to him, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it." That's the background to the story.

The story itself really revolves around three characters. There are lepers who are blessed beyond measure and then think only of themselves. There's the king who hears the good news and then doubts it, and then there's this captain who resolutely refused to believe. I think that all of us in the service here today will be able to identify with one of these characters, and I want us to learn from them this morning how we should respond to the good news of the mercy of God in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

First in the story, we have lepers who thought only of themselves. Chapter 7:3: "Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate, and they said to one another, 'Why are we sitting here until we die?'" You have the picture. You have a walled city that is under siege. There's some no-man's-land around the walls of the city, and then further out, you have this vast army forming a great circle around the entire city. Just outside the gates, you have here four lepers.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Behind them is the city where people are starving, and in front of them, a vast enemy army. They begin to evaluate their options. "What can we do?" They say to each other, "Why are we sitting here until we die? If we just sit here, we're going to die quite soon. Let's go over to the enemy camp and let's surrender to them. When we surrender, they might kill us, but we're no worse off then. If they kill us, then we die, but there is just a chance that they might spare us and then that we might live."

They decide to go. I want you to try and picture this. Four lepers in no doubt ragged clothing. We're told it's twilight, and they're walking in the twilight over the no-man's-land towards the enemy camp. What they didn't know was that God had already stepped in. Chapter 7:6: "For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, 'Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.'"

God caused them to hear a terrifying noise. As they hear this terrifying noise, they simply assume that another army is coming from behind to attack them. Maybe it's the Hittites. Maybe it's the Egyptians. Maybe it's both. Whoever it is, the sheer noise that we're hearing indicates that it's such a vast army, overwhelmingly greater than our numbers, and therefore we're not waiting to find out. We are out of here. They flee and they abandon the camp in their haste to retreat.

Now here are the four lepers and they're walking towards the camp. The nearer they get to the tents, the more curious they become because it's all so quiet. How can so many people be making so little noise? They get to the first tent and they look inside. There's nobody there, but there's a whole stash of food and drink, and these lepers are starving. They're hungry, and this might be the last meal before their execution, and so they grab the food and they absolutely tear into it.

Of course, they fear being discovered at any moment, but nobody comes. Eventually, they decide to take a look at the next tent. There's nobody there either. Slowly they realize that the enemy has entirely abandoned the camp. Here they are, just four lepers, with the supplies of an entire army. I picture them high-fiving each other. Can you imagine this? They can't get over it. Eating and drinking and dancing and laughing.

This must have gone on well into the night because we're told in Verse 8 that they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. You get the picture. What they found in these tents was not only food; they found silver, they found gold. Of course they did, because all of the army had to be paid. They'd been paid every week as they continued this siege, and there's nothing very much for them to spend their money on, so what are they doing? They're simply saving it up in the tents in order to take it home for their wives and their children when they return at the end of the campaign.

Well, here are these men. They've found not only an abundant supply of food, but they've stumbled on a fortune. They're taking the silver and the gold, they're going out into the trees, they're each digging a hole in order to build a stash of treasure that they will be able to come back to. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. At some point late into the night, they collapse in a heap, falling down exhausted. What a day.

Although they're exhausted, they can't sleep. Verse 9: "They said to one another, 'We are not doing right. This day 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.'" You see what they're saying? This is a day of the most glorious good news for us. What will the king say if we keep this good news to ourselves?

Now by the light of the moon, deep into the night, the lepers walk back across the no-man's-land and they tell the good news to the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers tell the good news to the king's servants, and the king's servants wake up the king and they tell the good news to him. That leads us to the king's response, and it was a very poor response because when the king heard the good news, he doubted the word of God. Verse 12: "And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, 'I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry; therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, "When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city."'"

Remember that the king had heard the word of God, the promise of God's provision directly from the mouth of Elisha the prophet. Tomorrow at this time, an abundance of food. The sun had not yet risen on this glorious new day, but already the promised provision had been made. An abundant supply of food, sufficient for all the people, was freely available just outside the city walls. All the people had to do was to go and get it.

But the king does not believe the good news. He thinks this is a trick. "I know what these Syrians are up to. They're hiding in the bushes. They want to lure us out of the city and then they will destroy us. I'm not falling for that. I'm no fool." The king is supremely confident about his own judgment here: "I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us."

Friends, what we have here is the remarkable story not only of how God wonderfully supplied food and thereby delivered on what He had promised, but also the equally wonderful story of how God overcame all the barriers that stood in the way of the people actually receiving this provision that God had made. The first barrier, of course, was the selfishness of the lepers. Now we have this second barrier, which is the unbelief of the king.

Steve Hiller: We'll continue to look at that next time here on Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Our message is called "God Will Bless Us," part of a larger series as we look at some of the stories from the life of Elisha called "In God We Trust." If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Open the Bible is listener-supported. We do depend on your generosity to keep this teaching on the air. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. Colin, tell us about this book.

Colin Smith: Well, the first thing that's absolutely fascinating to me is that Abraham Lincoln had and used a devotional. He read scripture and had it in his mind and in his heart. I discovered this because a friend of mine a while ago gave me an early edition of the actual devotional that Abraham Lincoln used, and it's brilliant. It lays out each day a verse or two of scripture. They're organized topically around a month, and they go through the experience of a Christian believer: our joys, our sorrows, our temptations, and of course our final hope and blessedness.

I was absolutely thrilled to discover that all these years ago, Abraham Lincoln was reading and meditating on a verse of scripture each day. Then I discovered that the book's been reprinted, and it's been beautifully reproduced. It's a joy to make this available to folks. It's in the old King James Version, which of course is so beautiful in the way that it expresses the word of God. I found this just to be very wonderful and rich. I think people will treasure having a copy of the devotional that Abraham Lincoln himself used to meditate on the word of God.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month. You can give a gift online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Again, our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: This is Pastor Colin, and I want you to know about a resource that will help you in your devotional life. It's called Open the Bible Daily. My colleague Pastor Tim Augustyn takes what you hear on Open the Bible and he edits it into daily bite-sized chunks that you can read in your devotional time in less than three minutes. Every day you'll find a verse of scripture, a short teaching from God's word, and an application that you can carry with you through the day. People who use this tell us that they read it every day, and I think that if you try it, you'll love it too. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.