God Still Delivers
2nd Kings 6:24-7
I was reading a commentary on this section and the author, Dale Ralph Davis, who mentioned the cost of things during the Civil War. He writes, “March 1865, Richmond, Virginia. The signs in store windows told a story of war: Bacon, $20 a pound; live hens, $50 each; beef,$15 a pound; butter, $20 a pound.” Some of these prices may seem like modern day prices but this was over 100 years ago. The war ravaged the economy.
In these two chapters we see how desperate Israel was because the Syrians besieged Samaria.
Desperate Times:
Because the Syrians were surrounding the Samaria, there was a famine in the land. The famine became so bad that the price of a donkey’s head eighty shekels and one-fourth of a quart of dove’s dung was sold for five shekels of silver. Fo us to understand how desperate this was for someone was that a man’s wage was 1 shekel per month. A donkey’s head definitely was something not kosher as well as good food but this just shows how desperate the Israelites in Samaria were.
We read on that a woman stopped the king to express a problem. The problem was her and another family were so hungry that they made a plan to boil one son one day and the other son the next day. Her son was the first to be boiled and eaten and when it came to the next day the other woman hid her son in desperation because she did not want to eat it. The state that people were in were of desperation and wanting to survive from famine and war.
The King and Elisha:
Once the king heard this he became sad and instead of turning to God because of the desperation, he turned against God and blamed Elisha for the outcome of the people. In desperate times we can always see people’s true hearts. They either run to God or blame him for their problems. The king of Israel desired for Elisha to be killed, thinking that his death would end the suffering. Elisha spoke God’s word to the man who was going to kill him with saying, “By this time tomorrow flour will be sold for a shekel.” People doubted that God could do such a thing, that would be impossible.
God Can Deliver:
From verses 3 to 20 we read about how God dismantled a whole army without the use of men, soldiers, or warriors. We read that lepers who were desperate knew that either they stay there and die or go to the Syrians and die. They went to their dismay and found the Syrians gone, and they left in a hurry because they left behind everything. God not only had the Syrians leave but also leave behind the goods that Israel needed like food and clothing.
It is interesting that God still delivered a group of people that had forsaken him. Israel worshiped other false gods and rebelled against the true God. Not only did they rebel but when hardship came because that was the result of their rebellion, instead of turning to God and asking for forgiveness, the start blaming and hating God more. Yet, despite all this, God still delivered them from their enemies hands. He made it so the economy could recover quickly, people would not be starving due to the famine. I am reminded of how God delivers me from sin even though I do not deserve it. Have you ever blamed God for a hardship? Have you ever thought he was the reason for the pain? It is an easy thing to do as to blame the creator for hardships but yet we don’t praise him for the blessings. We need to be faithful to God and know that he is sovereign (Isaiah 46:10). He is patient with us even though we do not deserve it (2nd Peter 3:9). Jesus died to save sinners, we went from enemies of God to children. He delivered us from the doorsteps of hell. He took the famine of sin in our life and the bondage of desperation and filled it with deliverance from sin and bondage. We were a desperate slave to sin and now are set free in the slavery of Christ.
