February 13, 2025, 2 Kings 7:3-20

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?  4  If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the

famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now

come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and

if they kill us we shall but die.”  5  So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the

Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was

no one there.  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.”  7  So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents,

their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.  8  And

when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and

drank, and 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.

9  Then 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.”  10  So they came and called to

the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and

behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the

donkeys tied and the tents as they were.”  11  Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was

told within the king's household.  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.’”  13  And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining

horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel

who have already perished. Let us send and see.”  14  So they took two horsemen, and

the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.”  15  So they went

after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and

equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers

returned and told the king.

16  Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine

flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word

of the LORD.  17  Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have

charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man

of God had said when the king came down to him.  18  For when the man of God had said

to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a

shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,”  19  the captain had answered

the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could such a

thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of

it.”  20  And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

This is an unusual story, yet it is the story of each one of us as we ponder seeking Jesus and His ways, or we choose to go the way of the world, or sit where we are.

Think about it. We each have a choice. We can go with the world, like the lepers could have gone into the city where they knew there was rejection and death. Those in the city didn't want lepers around them, and the city itself was starving. That choice, like our choice to go with the world, is one of death.

To stay where we are is a choice, but not a good one. The lepers could stay where they were, but they knew that also would leave to death. You can stay where you are and wait to die.

The other choice for the lepers was the possibility to live and they chose that option. As it turned out, God didn't just allow them to live, but to prosper. He handed the food and goods of the enemy into their hands.

You also have a choice. Are you going to go with the world and die? Are you going to stay where you are and die? Or are you going to choose the only option that gives life?

Choose to follow Jesus today. He is the only rational choice in this fallen world.

To learn more about how to choose Jesus and follow Him, please email me at: LoriTheDisciple@gmail.com