Resolution of the Crisis the Samaria

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by reminding the audience of the previous week's sermon, detailing the crisis in Samaria due to military siege and famine, and the king's ungodly, failed attempts to…

The exorbitant prices for paltry foodstuffs during the famine are compared to modern inflationary costs, making current inflation seem like 'the good old days' by comparison, to emphasize the severity of the crisis.

An attendant famine and then the account goes on to give some of the gruesome details of that frightening situation in conjunction with the siege and with the famine a situation in which the most paltry kinds of foodstuffs were sold at exorbitant prices that make our own inflationary costs seem like the good old days by comparison. And then of. Course that frightening account of the degree to which tender sensitive women were willing to stoop in eating the fruit of their own wounds in the midst of their hunger then we noted from Leviticus 26 and 28 the ultimate cause of this crisis it was a li...

1:24 - 2:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details how four lepers, facing certain death, decide to approach the Syrian camp, only to find it miraculously deserted because God caused the Syrians to hear sounds…

The hardened, disciplined Syrian army is compared to a Vietnam veteran for whom 'broken bloody bodies' are nothing, to highlight the unexpectedness and power of God's intervention in causing such a force to flee from mere sounds.

Like a man who may have spent three or four years in front line action in Vietnam and for whom broken bloody bodies held in the twitches of death throes are nothing this is what the Syrian army was made of it was known to be a hard and cruel military force and all God does is make him hear them sounds hear some sounds you'd think with all of their military expertise they would have at least sent out a scout. To say check out those sounds see where they're coming from see if you can get some initial logistical analysis of how many are coming with what but at the hearing of a sound they said one...

21:33 - 22:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details how four lepers, facing certain death, decide to approach the Syrian camp, only to find it miraculously deserted because God caused the Syrians to hear sounds…

Martin pictures the mass hysteria in the Syrian camp as news of 'two armies' spreads and escalates to 'twenty-six armies,' causing soldiers to flee without even their canteens, to emphasize the irrational fear God instilled.

Than they could go out for everything is left just as though they were all rapture just picked right up and dumped right out and one cannot help but laugh as he reads the details and one can picture something of this mass hysteria as a few people begin to spread the word why there's two armies out there waiting before long it's three and four and by the time the news reaches throughout the camp there's about twenty six armies and the fellows don't even stop to take their canteens or anything they do. Out they go every last one of them until there is not a man left in the camp but their horses ...

22:35 - 23:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details how four lepers, facing certain death, decide to approach the Syrian camp, only to find it miraculously deserted because God caused the Syrians to hear sounds…

Martin pictures the excitement of the lepers, who had always depended on scraps, as they find abundant food, gold, silver, and raiment, to highlight the sudden and unexpected reversal of their fortunes.

Apparently all prepared at eventide and they sat down and said well looks like it's been prepared for us somebody was expecting us must have made reservations for us so they sat down they ate and they drank and they saw within that camp that particular tent silver and gold and raiment so they took these things went and hid them then they came back entered into another tent and they took out some spoils and they were having a ball. Imagine lepers. Who? Been dependent for their very existence on the scraps that people will throw to them on the pittance that will be shared out of common kindness ...

23:37 - 24:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The king initially dismisses the lepers' report as a Syrian ambush, demonstrating his unbelief. However, a servant's wise counsel leads to verification, and the people then…

God using a little maiden to speak sense to Naaman, and a little boy to reveal a plot against Paul, are examples of God using humble instruments, paralleling the unnamed servant who advises the king.

unused by the people of God. But the same God who had a little maiden there in Syria, who talked some sense into an uppity general named Naaman, the same God who had a little boy near a prison when some people were talking about a plot to get rid of the Apostle Paul, is the God who had a servant there who had a little sense and probably a little spiritual discernment. And so this servant says to the king, verse 13, we don't know his name, he's just called one of his servants, answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain which are left in the city. And he then m...

28:20 - 29:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that the child and servant of God is invincible until his work is done, and live without anxious thought for the morrow.

The image of a sparrow not falling without the Father's hand 'gently bearing him to the ground in death' is used to illustrate God's meticulous providence and care for His children, assuring them of their invincibility until their work is done.

But just a few minutes later, he allows that king and his servant to his very presence, confident that the God who made the heart of that king can turn it as the watercourses and calm the angry passions of his unregenerate heart. It's a wonderful demonstration of the great fact that the child and servant of God is invincible until his work is done. That's why Jesus could say to the humblest of his children, take no anxious thought for the morrow. One sparrow falls to the ground without your father, without the direct actings of his will, if I may say it poetically, without the father's hand, g...

46:02 - 47:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that the child and servant of God is invincible until his work is done, and live without anxious thought for the morrow.

The Syrians, thinking they were gathering supplies for military victory, were actually piling food into their carts to feed God's people, illustrating God's unpredictable ways and His use of enemies to serve His purposes.

How strange are the ways of God! Furthermore, listen, when they figured up their military logistics and they were counting up how many donkeys and how many cartloads of food and other things should be taken to sustain the army while they wait out this siege, they thought, when they went to their storehouses, to bring out their grain, when they went to their storehouses, to bring out their salted meat and all the rest, they thought they were piling these things into their carts and wagons in order to accomplish a military victory. While all the while, you know what God was doing? He's saying, y...

48:18 - 49:03 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a child of God, do not only expect what common sense dictates from His hand, but trust Him as the God of marvelous surprises.

A quotation from Arthur Pink's commentary is used to emphasize how Ben-Hadad's plan to starve Samaria was nearly successful, but God's unexpected relief was already preparing, reinforcing the unpredictability of God's ways.

How unpredictable are the ways of God! And child of God, how desperately you and I need to lay hold of this lesson. Arthur Pink in his excellent commentary on this particular section of the narrative says, in order to carry out his scheme, that is, Ben-Hadad, he's brought with his army large supplies of food and clothing so that they might be in comfort while they waited for the stores of his victim to give out. How nearly his plan succeeded!

50:39 - 51:13 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a child of God, do not only expect what common sense dictates from His hand, but trust Him as the God of marvelous surprises.

A quotation from an old commentator named Scott is used to affirm that 'in extreme distress, unexpected relief is often preparing, and whatever unbelievers may imagine, it is not in vain to wait for the Lord,' encouraging trust in God's timing.

We have seen the Samaritans were reduced to the most desperate straits in an effort to keep life in their bodies. Yet, and now he quotes an old commentator by the name of Scott, in extreme distress, unexpected relief is often preparing, and whatever unbelievers may imagine, it is not in vain to wait for the Lord, how long soever He seems to delay in His coming. You see, it was the unexpectedness hinted at in the prophecy that became the stumbling block to the aide-de-camp of the King. If God should open up windows of heaven, how can this be?

51:13 - 51:57 Read in full sermon