Resolution of the Crisis the Samaria

Recap of the Crisis and Failed Human Attempts at Resolution

0:03 May I encourage you to turn with me and to keep open before you 2 Kings chapter 6 beginning with verse 32 and then for the majority of our time our attention will be focused upon the contents of chapter 7. As we come to this portion of the word of God I would remind you that chapter 6 beginning with verse 24 through to the end of chapter 7 is one basic unit in the narrative. It is the rather lengthy account of the crisis in Samaria and then the resolution of that crisis by the miraculous intervention of God. Last week. Lord's Day evening we had time only to examine the emergence of that crisis in Samaria the capital of the northern kingdom and we noted that that crisis arose fundamentally from 2 basic problems the problem of a military siege by the full army of the Assyrians the Syrians and from. From.

1:24 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 literal fulfillment of the curses of the covenant God had promised that if his people would turn aside from his ways.

2:25 If they would be indifferent and insensitive to his lesser forms of judgment that as one of the most aggregated aggravated forms of judgment prior to their being sent into captivity God would actually allow situations such as these to develop in their national life and then we concluded our studies by considering the false attempts at the resolution of the crisis by this poor blind. Spiritually insensitive leader King Johorah who thought that a little bit of external religious activity with the rending of his clothes and the wearing of a hair shirt would suffice to turn away the wrath of God and then who showed the real disposition of his heart when he takes this ungodly vow that within 24 hours he will be head the prophet of God well tonight we move into more pleasant ground.

The Preservation of the Man of God and Prophetic Announcement

3:25 We move from this description of the crisis in Samaria to what I have entitled the resolution of that crisis and what we'll attempt to do is we often do in these historical passages is to grasp the essential facts of the narrative and then seek to consider the abiding message contained in that narrative and as we work our way through the passage beginning with verse 32. Under the general heading of the resolution of the crisis in Samaria we notice that the first element in the resolution of that crisis is the preservation of the man of God versus 32 and 33 of second Kings chapter 6 the king has taken this ungodly vow to behead Elijah Elisha within 24 hours. Now the narrative tells us that Elijah.

4:25 Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him and this picture of a prophet sitting with the elders the leaders in Israel before him is not something that we encounter only in this passage there are at least three references to a similar situation in the book of the prophecy of Ezekiel Ezekiel 8 1 14 1 and 20 and verse 1 and also in the book of the prophecy of Ezekiel. In the book of Jeremiah chapter 21 verses 1 and following and the picture seems to be this that in a time of national crisis there was the recognition that the prophet was indeed the representative of Jehovah in Israel and if hope was to be found anywhere even though the word of the prophet may have been despised as the crisis was developing even though the word of the prophet may have been laughed at and mocked.

5:25 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the realities of approaching armies as in this case real in terms of an army besieging the city of the famine within the city that the leaders had some semblance of desire to know if there was a word from God for them in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the realities of approaching armies as in this case real in terms of an army besieging the city of the famine within the city that the leaders had some semblance of desire to know if there was a word from God for them in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel.

6:25 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the realities of approaching armies as in this case real in terms of an army besieging the city of the famine within the city that the leaders had some semblance of desire to know if there was a word from God for them in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the realities of approaching armies as in this case real in terms of an army besieging the city of the famine within the city that the leaders had some semblance of desire to know if there was a word from God for them in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel.

7:26 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the realities of approaching armies as in this case real in terms of an army besieging the city of the famine within the city that the leaders had some semblance of desire to know if there was a word from God for them in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel.

8:26 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel.

9:26 Why not simply capitulate to the Syrians and have it over with in all likelihood it is that word of despairing cynical unbelief but in the midst of it God is doing a most significant thing he is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking from him that determination sealed with a vow that he should take off the head of Elisha and so in the resolution of Elisha. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of that crisis and in all likelihood Elisha is sitting there with the elders of Israel.

10:27 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of it God is doing a most significant thing he is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking from him that determination sealed with a vow that he should take off the head of Elisha. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of it God is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking off the head of Elisha.

11:28 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of it God is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking off the head of Elisha. When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of it God is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking from him that determination sealed with a vow that he should take off the head of Elisha.

12:29 When the crisis was only a matter of words when it began to be visible in the midst of it God is moving upon the heart of this unprincipled king and taking off the head of Elisha. In the passage of Genesis 7 in which it is said in conjunction with the flood that God opened the windows of heaven he picking up something of the spirit of his master says again with the cynicism of unbelief behold if God should actually open up windows in heaven and rain down flour and barley could such a promise be fulfilled within 24 hours. In other words he is questioning both.

13:30 The credibility of the prophet and the power of Jehovah and he's not at all reluctant to blurt out his cynicism his skepticism and his unbelief but the man of God so certain that he has a word from God then gives a second word the first word was a word of divine intervention in mercy this word is a word of divine intervention in judgment look at the latter part of verse 2. And he said that is Elisha behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat thereof Elisha tells him that what his senses and human reason tell him is utterly impossible he will perceive with his senses but he will not enter into the joys and the privileges of what he sees.

14:31 And so the prophet of God in this resolution of the crisis in Samaria is first of all preserved but then secondly he becomes the instrument of delivering a word from God a twofold word one of divine intervention in mercy one of divine intervention in judgment now having considered the preservation of the man of God the prophetic announcement. Of the deliverance of God notice in the third place the details of the intervention of God beginning with verse 3 and in these details there are basically three groupings of the events you have the activity of the four lepers down to verse 10 then the activity and reaction of the king versus 11 through 15 and then the activity of the people versus 16 and 17.

The Activity of the Four Lepers and God's Miraculous Intervention

15:32 Now I break this down not to appear clever but in order to help you so that as you take this passage in hand as you fathers and mothers seek to lead family worship with your own families that you will be able to open up to them the word of God with simplicity in the details then of the intervention of God we have this fascinating account of the activity of these four lepers verse 3. Now there were four lepers. Leprous men at the entrance of the gate some of the secular Jewish historians say that this was Gehazi and his three sons you remember Gehazi who was plagued with leprosy for the rest of his days because of his sin in conjunction with the healing of Naaman but be that as it may here is a situation where in spite of bail worship and national decadence. You find what you want.

16:32 You always find in the midst of great moral defection from God there was this meticulous concern about ceremonial details and the ceremonial law had required that lepers should be put outside the camp that lepers should not enter into the normal social intercourse of the people of God and so even though as a nation there has been this wholesale apostasy and departure from God they are very meticulous about the details of ceremony. And so we find these lepers who are at the entrance of the gate and they begin to reason with one another in this way and they said one to another why sit we here until we die if we say we will enter into the city then the famine is in the city and we shall die there and if we sit here we die also now therefore come let us fall into the host of the series.

17:32 If they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die do you see their process of reasoning something stirs them out of this state of passivity and lethargy in which they are in a sense mere witnesses to this terrible tragedy up until the famine came no doubt they were the recipients of some of the compassionate concern and benevolence of the people of God. Within the city and as lepers they no doubt were beggars but now that the famine is reached such heights there is nothing left over to be passed on to beggars and there is nothing within the city and they begin to face realistically the tragic state they are in and they say to themselves now wait a minute if we sit here and do nothing we are going to die well what are our options well if we go back through the gate into the city there is nothing in there we will die there. Well the other option is to go back through the gate into the city and say we are going to die there.

18:33 Well the alternative is we can go out to the camp of the Syrians and if we do that there are two possibilities they may look on us as a couple of Israelites who deserve to die and kill us if so what have we lost we are going to die anyway let's have it over with but on the other hand there may be some compassion in their ranks it may be that amongst them there will be some pity toward poor starving lepers and so they reason with themselves saying we've got nothing to lose we've got everything to gain. And so what do they do versus five to ten describe their activity first of all the resolution now the activity that grows out of that resolution and we read in the record beginning now with verse five and they rose up in the twilight these fellows weren't stupid the time when it would be most difficult to follow their actions and what they probably did was to circle out around the city and come in as if it were a city.

19:33 They rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians behold there was no man there expecting to see a host of soldiers getting ready to bed down for the night they cannot find a man in the entire camp. And then verses six and seven form a. Parenthesis of divine explanation something which the lepers could not know by way of examination by way of scientific investigation and so God gives us his own explanation of what happened for the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and the noise of horses even the noise of a great host and they said one to another.

20:33 The king of Israel have hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys even the camp as it was and fled for their life. What an amazing thing here they approach the camp expecting to see multitudes they see not a soul and the explanation is given. That whether by actually causing a physical sound to reverberate through the air or whether by causing a deceptive impulse upon the auditory nerves the text is careful to indicate that all of this was caused simply by a sound now think of it here is this brave warlike nation of the Syrians men who have been hardened and disciplined in battle.

21:33 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 to another not could it be that but they drew an immediate conclusion the king of Israel he's hired these other nations and they're all coming let's get out of here for our lives and so without even taking time to untie there and have the sense enough to jump on their donkeys that could go faster.

22:35 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 their donkeys and their camp is left just as it was at eventide well then picking up the narrative again concerning the activity of these lepers verse eight and when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp they went into one tent and there was a meal.

23:37 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 compassion or just discussed whatever the motive may be and suddenly they find themselves able to eat to the full they can amass a wealth in a matter of moments that they never would have anticipated in twenty lifetimes and I can just picture and I hope you can picture with me something of the excitement of these fellows as they go.

24:38 From tent to tent and there is food and gold and silver and raiment but suddenly we read in verse nine conscience begins to work and it's amazing how conscience can work in the midst of the most abandoned reverie then they said one to another we do not well this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace if we tarry till the morning light. Punishment will overtake us now therefore come let us go and tell the king's household so they came and called unto the porter of the watchman of the city and they told them saying we came to the camp of the Syrians and behold there was no man there neither voice of man but the horses tied and the asses tied in the tents as they were in the midst of their enjoyment of what they have found in the tents of the

25:39 Syrians soldiers suddenly their consciences begin to smite them that they are members of a nation that was just a few hours before under military siege a nation that is gripped in famine and they're very much aware of that famine for they said if we go back into the city we shall die because of the famine and suddenly the sense of responsibility to their fellow Israelites grips them and fills them with such a sense of fear that some judgment. May fall from the living God if they keep silent about this that they run back to the walls of the city and they cry out to the watchman upon the walls telling them the facts and there the action of the lepers ends and that moves us then to verses 11 through 15 to the record of the reaction and activity of the king and he's true to four and he that is the king called the porters and told it to the king's house.

The King's Unbelief and the People's Deliverance

26:40 Hold within and the king arose in the night and said unto his servants now notice he doesn't say could it be that this may be a military tactic he says I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us there's no indication that even fought for a moment when the report came to him wait a minute could this be the fulfillment of the word. A life should a man of God. Put this you know way in which that prophecy that seemed so utterly impossible in its foe filme is about to come theGuys could agree that even if you were a weak in faith he could have said you could be but just to be sure let's check it out now no no one of the scheme he's true to form. Calls together those who doubt immediately says aye we'll no. Show. You.

27:42 Will. what the Syrians have done to us. Here are the facts. They know that we're hungry.

27:50 Therefore, they've gone out of the camp. They've set an ambush to hide themselves in the field, saying, when we come out of the city, see, they know how strong are our hunger pangs. And hearing of their empty tents, they know that when we come out, the moment we do, then they'll pounce upon us. They will then annihilate us and accomplish their designs.

28:13 And in the light of that, if the king had had his way, all of that divine provision would have been there,

28:20 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 makes this suggestion that at least two chariots with their horses go forth, probably hoping that if one were attacked and killed, the other would at least be able to come back, excuse me, with a report. And so the king is persuaded by the suggestion of one of his servants. He's humbled to take advice from an inferior.

29:30 And following that advice, he says in verse 14, Go and see. And they went after them to the Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrians had cast, cast away in their hastes. And the messengers returned and told the king. That same spirit of fear with which they left the camp and did not untie horses and donkeys or take anything with them, apparently pursued them all the way to the Jordan, for they found their goods and clothing and materials along the way.

30:05 And then in verses 16 and 17, we have a record of the activity of the people. And the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. And the king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate.

30:32 And the people trod upon him in the gate. And he died, as the man of God has said, who spake when the king came down to him. Well, we have taken about 25 minutes to work our way through the facts of this narrative. The facts concerning the gracious deliverance of God on behalf of his people in this crisis in Samaria.

The Absolute Trustworthiness of God's Word

31:02 What then is the message of this portion of the word of God? What was its message to the people of God in that day and in that situation? What is its message to us sitting here tonight? Is it just an interesting story to tell our children, to give them some background in the history of the nation of Israel?

31:25 Well, it is that, but it is much more than that. And I confess that I've had to exercise what I tell the young men is the discipline of exclusion in seeking to lay before you the main lines of applicatory emphasis because this, this passage literally oozes with marvelous and vivid demonstrations of the ways of God, the principles of his government, the manifestations of his grace and of his judgment. But as time permits, let me suggest several lines of thought which constitute the message of this passage. First of all, the record of God's deliverance of his people from the crisis, in Samaria, constitutes an affirmation of the absolute trustworthiness of the word of God. I will be bold enough to say that the central message of this passage is that God's word is utterly and absolutely trustworthy. Why do I say that? For the simple reason that the passage begins, concerning the actual deliverance with the word of God in verse 1 of chapter 7.

32:49 And Elisha said, Hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah. And then there is that prophecy of the intervention of God in mercy. And at the end of verse 2, there is the prophecy of the intervention of God in judgment.

33:11 Now, when the narrative concludes, beginning with verse 16, no fewer than four times is it emphasized that everything that transpires, transpires according to the word of God, both the word of mercy and the word of judgment. Notice the emphasis at the latter part of verse 16. Two measures of barley for a shekel according to the word of the Lord. The latter part of verse 17.

33:47 And he died as the man of God had said who spake when the king came down to him. Verse 18. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king. Verse 20.

34:06 And it came to pass even so unto him. God himself, has taken his own red pencil, and underlined the essential and central message of this passage. And the message is this, that his word is absolutely trustworthy. As the word of God came through the prophet of God to Israel, with its message of divine intervention unto mercy, and to this skeptical, unbelieving, and military assistant of the king, as it came as a message of judgment, it is that word which is utterly and totally trustworthy, even as we sit in this place tonight. Almighty God has spoken a word concerning his intervention in mercy for lost and needy sinners. That word is the word of the gospel. It is that word embodied in such familiar text as John 3 and verse 16.

35:24 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish or should not perish but have everlasting life. That word of mercy believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. And in a real sense, that word of God's intervention in mercy on behalf of sinners is as difficult to comprehend and believe possible as this word.

36:01 How can a holy God love the likes of us? How can God be just and the justifier of ungodly sinners? There is both an overt skepticism with regard to the gospel, that is tragic, but there is a subtle form of skepticism that has a shroud of piosity about it. Oh, I'm too miserable and too dire a sinner ever to be a recipient of mercy.

36:32 My friend, listen. This word from God says Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, just sinners, not little sinners, half-grown sinners. No qualification. He came to save sinners.

36:52 That word is utterly and totally trustworthy. And every sinner sitting in this place tonight has as much warrant to embrace that word of divine intervention in mercy, not with the breaking of a military siege and the filling of material and physical hunger, but with the breaking of a military siege and the filling of material and physical hunger. But with the breaking of a military siege and the filling of material and physical hunger, of the siege of man's soul, by the devil and the hordes of hell, and by coming to us with the bread of life, the wheat of which was pounded in Gethsemane and Calvary, and is now offered to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus saith the Lord. There is mercy, and that word is trustworthy. But I must be faithful to the passage and remind you that there is mercy, and that word is trustworthy.

37:47 But I must be faithful to the passage and remind you that there is mercy, and that word is trustworthy. But I must be faithful to the passage and remind you that there is mercy, and that word is trustworthy. But I must be faithful to the passage and remind you that there is mercy, and that word is trustworthy. Now, I remind you that the prophet also had to bring a word of judgement, and that word is trustworthy.

38:11 This skeptic who said, If God should make windows in heaven, should such a thing come to pass! You talked to me of forgiveness and mercy and acceptance with God, into the hell where there see it with your eyes, but you'll not partake of the joys thereof. One of the most frightening passages to me in all of the Word of God is in Luke chapter 13, and it falls from the very lips of the Lord Jesus. And he says in verse 28 of Luke 13, There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast without. Ye will see, but not enjoy. And can you imagine what it must have been like for that adjutant, that aid and decamp of the king, when he, standing with the others, sees that abundance of flour and barley brought in from the tents and the store of the Syrians, and he thinks of his own hunger pangs that he has known through that period of the siege. And everything in him, as it were, is reaching out to take hold of that which is ravishing others. But the Word of the Lord comes to his conscience. You will see, but you will

39:30 not partake thereof. My friend, what will it be when you stand before the living God and you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and sinners who by nature were as vile, as dead, as unclean, as hell-deserving as yourself? Sitting down at the banquet of the marriage supper of the Lamb, you will see it with your eyes, only to hear the words, bind them hand and trust them into outer darkness.

An Amazing Display of God's Manifold Grace

40:10 My friend, that word is utterly trustworthy. It shall come to pass according to the Word of the living God. And I say that's the first great and predominant message. I say it is the first great and predominant message of this account of the resolution of the crisis in Samaria. But then secondly, this narrative not only constitutes this affirmation of the trustworthiness of the Word of God, but it constitutes an amazing display of the manifold grace of God. What is grace? It is God's favor and goodwill to the ill-deserving. and when we think of the condition of the people of God in Samaria at this time not a shred of evidence that there is any national repentance in the face of these frightening judgments from God if ever there was a time when the finality of the promised curses of the covenant could have justly fallen it was now

41:22 but precisely at that point God says tomorrow at this time both the siege and the famine will be over and if we ask the question why were the little prayer cells being formed in Samaria was their national mourning and repentance and crying to God not a shred of evidence that any such thing preceded or even followed this event it was holy, gracious grace it was God showing goodwill and favor to the ill deserving he sovereignly opened his heart and graciously opened his hand and how thankful we should be that that God is the same yesterday today and forever in a sense this is a commentary on Ephesians 2 1-4 verses 1-3 and contracts that his a stripped and hye crisp you paid 寸 9 sensitive heart you bring ock back all all civil gr proverb

42:51 is and how this sounds this school stir us up to a renewed remembrance of the magnitude of the grace of God. What were we? Well, we can view ourselves as those apostate Israelites within the gate. And that picture is surely a picture of us.

43:18 God's law having come to us in all of its purity and holiness, in its righteous demands, and yet we turned away from the God of that law and the law of that God. And we were the just objects of His wrath. And yet here we come tonight. Instead of starving in our sins, we feast upon the bread of life.

43:45 Why was I made to hear Thy voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? It was the same love that spread the fever, the taste that sweetly drew us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Or we may see ourselves in those lepers.

44:18 Most serious Bible students are agreed that the extensive treatment of leprosy is intended of God to set forth, at least in some way, the awfulness of sin. And we were like those lepers, barred from the community of God, God's visible people, outcasts because of our uncleanness, shut up to no alternative but death. And yet before nightfall, their bellies were filled, and they had become the bearers of good tidings to others that became the means of the deliverance of the city. Oh, what a picture of the grace of God.

The Invincibility of God's Servants and the Unpredictableness of His Ways

45:01 And as we come to the Lord's table, may something of the charming, sound of grace become more charming to us even as we sit and eat together. But then in the third place, the abiding message of this narrative is this. It demonstrates the invincibility of the child and servant of God. Here's a king under the pressure of his angry passions to sever the head of the prophet within 24 hours, and he's got all the power of his kingdom at his disposal to do it.

45:41 But God yet has work for his servant to do. And the servant of God sits calmly in his house. He's not reckless. When God intimates to him by direct revelation that the king has sent a messenger to take his head off or to announce that the king himself is coming to sever his head, he uses legitimate means to preserve his life.

46:02 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, gently bearing him to the ground in death. Not one sparrow falls to the ground without your father. Are ye not of much more value than many sparrows? Take no anxious thought for the morrow.

47:13 Fear not them which kill the body. These are the words of our Lord. Why? Because though we are not prophets of God, we are children of God, standing within the same framework of covenant grace and mercy that is bounded by the omnipotence of Almighty God.

47:35 And not one hair of our head can fall without the will and the knowledge of our Father. It's a wonderful thing to live in days when God allows the passions of men to be stirred up against His truth and His servants and His church to know we are invincible until our work is done. And then this passage also contains a message to us in that it demonstrates the unpredictableness of the ways of God. Who would have thought that a battle-hardened army would have turned heel because they heard some sounds?

48:18 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, you're putting that in your carts to feed My people.

49:03 You're My errand boys. Now, they didn't know it, but God did. And the very foodstuff that was supposed to sustain the army, that would, to wait out the siege and result in the annihilation of God's people, that food becomes the very food which sustains their life. How strange are the ways of God!

49:29 God could have rained down food out of heaven as He did in the wilderness, but it's more amazing when God works by these other means, is it not? How unpredictable are the ways of God! Likewise, who would have thought, that lepers who get, as it were, locked into a mentality of fatalism, they're afflicted with a disease that cuts them off from all normalcy of life. They cannot go up to the temple in worship.

49:59 They cannot have social intercourse with the people of God. They're isolated. They're at the mercy of the scraps that are thrown their way. Who would have thought that in the midst of a situation like this, they should be stirred up to such an enterprising mentality as is recorded?

50:19 We would have thought maybe a few sons of the prophets would have gone out and discovered this, but God takes some outcasts. He takes the weak things and the things which are not and the things which are despised. This is why the Bible says, Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who's been His teacher?

50:39 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!

51:13 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?

51:57 And if I'm speaking to someone who sits here tonight with the calm, logical processes of the thinker, that's what you call yourself, you reason things through. You're the one who approaches things rationally and common sense-like. My friend, if you're a child of God, may God have pity on you if all you expect from His hand is what common sense dictates. He is the God of marvelous surprises.

The Wickedness of Unbelief and the Sin of Silence

52:28 This passage demonstrates the unpredictableness of the ways of our God. And then, it also underscores the wickedness of unbelief in the Word of God. There's only, in a sense, one real, real sour note in this seventh chapter. It's not too sweet a note when you see the skepticism of the King, but it turns out all right for him.

52:53 But the sour note, you see, is that note of the wickedness of unbelief, of this adjutant, this aide-de-camp of the King, because he dares to say, in essence, by his unbelief, God is not free to be god, for that's what unbelief does. It un-gods God. And it measures Him by the standard of a man. Our God is in the heavens.

53:21 He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. This passage underscores the wickedness of unbelief in the Word of God, because the very note on which it sounds is not a happy note. It's that base note on which it ends. Ye shall not...

53:41 I'm sorry. It ends with underscoring, and it came to pass, that God did not give Him so unto Him, for the people trod upon Him in the gate, and He died. Those are the closing words of the chapter. He died.

54:04 He died! He died! And right over those words! Unbelief equals death!

54:15 Ultimately, of course, the second death. For those who will not believe the Gospel, Revelation 21.8, in the list of sinners that includes murderers and whoremongers and idolaters. You know what God sticks right in the middle?

54:30 Unbelievers. But the fearful and the unbelieving and the whoremongers and the liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. Oh, what a wicked thing is unbelief. God comes to us with a well-attested word.

54:47 And when we will not believe, we are guilty of ungodding God. And then finally, this passage underscores the wickedness of silence concerning the gracious provisions of God. Verse 9, they said one to another, We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace.

55:14 If we tarry till the morning light, punishment will overtake us. They recognized, from whatever motives we do not know, it may have been simply the actings of natural conscience. It may have been that they understood the grace of God in what God had done. We do not know, and we dare not pry, as it were, into the inner psychology.

55:39 This much we do know. They recognized that in the midst of the bounty that had come so graciously to them, and which was adequate for many more, they would provoke the judgment of God if they were silent about that provision. And surely, dear brothers and sisters, we who have come to feed on the bread of life, we who by nature were outcasts and lepers, having been brought to the provisions of grace, we do not well to be silent. There is grace enough in the Lord Jesus for the vilest of sinners.

56:20 And oh, how our hearts ought to be stirred up even as we come to the table tonight with a renewed passion in terms of our own gifts and calling and circumstances of life, not to be as sinfully silent as we are about the glorious provisions of grace. Has God come to you in grace? Well then, that grace that saved you is adequate to save the neediest of sinners. And you and I, brothers and sisters, do not well.

56:57 This is a day of good tidings. This is a day in which we should not hold our peace, but proclaim to men what God has done in grace.

57:12 In a few moments, we will be gathering to the Lord's table. Here we will be proclaiming the Lord's death. And oh, that as we leave this place tonight, there will be no disparity between what we do here and what we do in our homes, in our places of business, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, that we may be the instruments of constant proclamation, not of what we are and of what we've attained, but what Almighty God has done to intervene in grace on behalf of starving, desperately needy sinners.

57:53 May God write upon our hearts this word of His own gracious deliverance from the crisis in Samaria and all that it contains as a word of God to us. Let us pray.

Prayer for Trust and Proclamation

58:18 Our Father, we know not how to thank You for Your holy, Your changeless, Your infallible Word. We thank You that the Scriptures, tell us forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven. And though heaven and earth pass away as we now know them, Your Word will never pass away. We thank You for this portion that we've been privileged to study this night.

58:47 We do plead that in that great day when we stand before You, it may be revealed that this night was the night when some who began the evening in unbelief moved, moved from impenitence and unbelief to a state of repentance and faith. When You used Your Word to help the timid, trembling soul who constantly is tempted to think in terms of what he or she conceives to be the only inevitable results, O Lord, bring us back again and again to this portion of Your Word and enable us to trust You as the God of gracious surprises.

59:36 We plead with You now to seal Your Word to our hearts. We plead with You to prepare our hearts for our time of remembrance about the table. Hear our prayer and be with us in Your grace, we pray, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.