Don't Hold Your Peace !

Sun. evening message

Don’t Hold Your Peace !

2 Kings 7:1-20

I. The Dilemma Of The Lepers. V 3

a. They were sick.

In Biblical times the disease of Leprosy was regarded as a awful punishment from the Lord. It’s very name means "smiting". Those who were afflicted with the disease were considered to be unclean.

(From Smith’s Bible Dictionary)The disease began with little specks on the eyelids and on the palms of the hands, and gradually spread over different parts of the body, bleaching the hair white wherever it showed itself, crusting the affected parts with shining scales, and causing swellings and sores. From the skin, it slowly ate its way through the tissues, to the bones and joints, and even to the marrow, rotting the whole body piecemeal. The lungs, the organs of speech and hearing, and the eyes, were attacked in turn, till at last, consumption or dropsy brought welcome death. The dread of infection kept men aloof from the sufferer; and the law proscribed him as above all men unclean. The disease was hereditary to the fourth generation.")


The awful disease of Leprosy reminds us of the sinful condition of mankind, and it’s affects. Like leprosy the sinful nature of man is inheritied. Every person born into this world outside of Christ himself is born in sin. The writer of the Psalms declared "In sin did my mother conceive me." Like leprosy, sin spreads. Leprosy affected those who were in immediate contact as does sin.

Leprosy started off seeminly innocent with just specks, but would soon spread like cancer and consume the individual. Sin, like Leprosy brought shame and disgrace upon the individual. The leper was hopeless apart from a work of God as is the sinner. Outside of a miracle from God the Leper would die in his condition. Apart from the work of grace, the sinner is doomed !

b. They were separated.

We see in our scripture tonight the separation of the Leper. They were outside the gates of the city. No leper could live in a walled city. And wherever he was he was required to have his outer garment torn as a sign of deep grief. He was required to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle as if lamenting at his own virtual death. He was obligated further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out "Unclean ! Unclean ! A leper was not allowed to speak to any one, or receive or return any salutation since this involved in an embrace. The Leper was cutoff from the house of God, and was excluded from priesthood. They lived a shameful, segregated, and separated life. What a awful glimpse of the results of our sinful nature. We are separated from God because of our sin ! We are unclean !

c. They were starving.

Not only were the lepers forced to deal with the disease that ravished their body, and the shame that occupied their soul....they were starving. Look at their dire situation.

Look at 2 Kings 6:25 "There was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold they beseiged it(referring to Syria) until an asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

The famine was so severe that it lent opportunity for the Syrians to beseige Samaria. The Syrian army literally had the people shut in, and intended on starving them out ! Food was so scarce that the head of a donkey was selling for 80 pieces of silver, and a