Why Sit Here Until We Die?
By Pastor James May
2 Kings 6:24 – 7:20
2 Kings 7:3-5, "And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: 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 still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there."
There was a severe famine in the land of Israel. This famine wasn’t the result of a drought, or swarms of locusts that would sometimes scour the land of every green plant and leaf, but it was the result of a war. God had allowed the Syrian Army, under the command of Benhadad, to come against Samaria in Israel because of the sins of their king, Jehoram, who was the son of Ahab and Jezebel. Most of you will remember that Ahab was the worst king that Israel ever had, and that Jezebel, Ahab’s Queen, was the one who ruled Israel behind the scenes because she influenced Ahab to bring Israel into idolatry.
I have often wondered if Ahab would have been such an evil king if he had found a queen among his own people instead of marrying a woman of the Zidonians, a people who worshipped Baal and didn’t know the God of Israel. Could Ahab have been influenced for good by a godly queen, instead of being influenced for evil by an idol-worshipping wife?
If only he had learned to serve the Lord, the history of Ahab would have been so very different. But let Ahab’s life, and his eternal punishment, be a warning to all who would refuse to hear the Word of God when it says in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
How many Christians today are marrying someone who doesn’t serve the Lord? Do they not understand that they are walking in the same footprints of Ahab? The beautiful young woman, who lives for the devil, will be the downfall of a man who might otherwise have been used greatly by God. That handsome young man who seems so kind and wonderful now, will soon show his true colors. The character traits of his family, the family of Satan, will surface quickly and then you will feel like you have married the devil himself. Young lady or young man, (and even if you aren’t so young anymore) if you are contemplating courtship and marriage – be careful of who you become involved with. If their first qualification isn’t that they serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and aren’t faithful to the House of God, then run from them. Break it off with that ungodly man or woman before you lose your relationship with Christ and your name is blotted out of the Lambs Book of Life forever. Don’t let you epitaph read like Ahab’s. God will bring the right person along for you in His time. And believe me, you are better off living alone for the rest of your life, than to get married to devil worshipper! They don’t have to have a pentagram painted on the floor, or a goat’s head hanging in their den, or a Ouija Board on the coffee table to be devil worshipper. All they have to do to qualify as a child of the devil is to not be saved by the Blood of Jesus. If any man, or any woman, is not saved, born again, and transformed into a child of God, then they are a devil worshipper. It’s that simple!
I know that even Christians who marry other Christians will have a life that is filled with trouble and trials, but when both are serving the Lord, God will help them to be overcomers. There is no such promise to those who serve the devil.
Now that I have chased this thought for a moment, let us get back to the famine in Samaria under the leadership of king Jehoram. Jehoram wasn’t much better than Ahab. He had learned his lessons well from Ahab and Jezebel. Just to make a quick point here – let us never forget that God said way back in Exodus 34:7 when Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, that He would allow the sins of the fathers to be, "… upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Let’s not bring the curse upon our children and grandchildren, should the Lord tarry in His coming, for future generations. Raise them to fear and serve the Lord.
The famine in Israel was more the result of sin in the camp than of the siege of the Syrian Army. Israel would not have been in this position had they continued to serve the Lord, because God had brought the Syrian army in an attempt to wake them up and bring them back to God.
The famine was so bad that the Jews of Samaria had resorted to cannibalism just to survive.
In 2 Kings 6:25-28 we read of the severity of the famine, "And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress? And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow."
My friends let me tell you that the world that doesn’t know Christ today is in just such a famine. There are millions around this globe who fall asleep every night hungry. There are multitudes that would give their right arm just to have what you and I will throw into the garbage every day. I’ve seen some of this with my own eyes. People are starving in more places than you can name.
As bad as the hunger for food for this body is, that’s not the worst famine in the world today. There is a far greater famine – a Spiritual Famine for the Word and Presence of God! This famine knows no national boundaries, no cultural boundaries, no ethnic boundaries and no race boundaries. It affects every sinner on the face of the earth, young and old alike. In fact, it seems that the more affluent and satisfied a nation is in the flesh, the worse the Spiritual famine becomes. America today might be the richest nation on the face of the earth in materialistic ways but it’s fast becoming, and may already be, the single worst nation on earth that is caught in the grip of a Spiritual famine for the things of God. We are caught in idolatry, having been led down that slippery path for the past 200 or more years by those among us who refuse to bow their knee before Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord.
Look around you, read your newspapers, watch your news on TV, listen to what’s being said over the airwaves, and you will hear the same effects of famine that Samaria saw in that day.
Oh we might not see a donkey’s head selling for a year’s wages – but we are selling our families and our children to the devil for a job, or so we can “do our own thing” and not be bothered with caring for the kids. We are selling our soul to devil for a dollar so we can have what we want now, forgetting that eternity is only one heartbeat away.
We might not see anyone scooping up dove droppings and pedaling them on the street corner for a fist full of cash – put we see the drug dealers pedaling drugs that are worst than dove droppings – and our children and even some of us, have handed over everything that we hold dear for just one more fix, one more pill or one more moment of euphoria that the drugs can give.
And what about the cannibalism? Do we see that happening in America today? What about the young lady who walks in to an abortion mill to kill her own baby? What about the parent who neglects their child while they are having a good time? What about the “latchkey kids” who often wind up kidnapped or raped? What about those who will abuse their own children and molest them? Maybe you don’t look at it these things as being as bad as cannibalism, but I do and I believe that God does too! Are we not allowing our children to be devoured by the devil? Are we not giving them over to be destroyed, body and soul, to a world of sin, and a devil whose only goal is to kill, steal and destroy?
Paul wrote these words to the church of the Galatians when he said in Galatians 5:14-15, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."
Where is the love that parents should have for their children? Where is the love that children once had for their parents? Where is the love that people should have for one another? It’s missing today, and sometimes it’s missing, even in the church! Without that love in operation in our families and in our churches, we will soon be devouring one another and biting at one another. Has there been some biting going on in your home? Have you been taking cheap shots at one another? Have you been cutting one another to pieces with your words? A soul is devoured one word at a time! A marriage is destroyed one word at a time! A child’s life is forever changed by a single word! We see people being devoured everyday and we don’t even pay it much attention anymore!
Folks, we have a real famine in our land today – a famine for the Word of God and the Love of God! It’s a famine of our own creation and the only way to end it is to begin to feed upon the truth of the gospel!
If all of these things are happening in the church, where does that leave those who without Christ? It’s bad enough in the church, but its absolutely terrible in the world that knows not God!
Now we can sit here all day and talk about the famine. We can bemoan our spiritual hunger, we can wail over the terrible conditions of our world, we can cry over our lost loved ones who are dying from spiritual malnutrition, we can complain about our lot in life, we can keep doing our own thing, and go ruthlessly ahead, ignoring every warning sign in our life, or we can do something about it and make a change for the better!
Let’s go back to our text for a moment!
2 Kings 7:3-5, "And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: 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 still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there."
These four lepers represent every one of us who is caught in the Spiritual Famine of today! I know that leprosy is always a type of sin in the Bible. Those who contracted leprosy were given a death sentence for their physical life just as those who commit sin are sentenced to eternal death. How many of you know that the same sin that condemns a sinner to hell will also condemn a Christian to hell if they don’t repent of it?
Four lepers, perhaps the number four represents all mankind from the four corners of the globe, finally decided that they had to do something about their hunger.
They weren’t allowed into the city because of their leprosy, but even if they did go into the city of king Jehoram, what could he do? What could any man do to fill their hunger?
King Jehoram had told the woman whose son had been eaten, “…If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn floor, or out of the winepress?" Even the king was hungry. He couldn’t produce the miracle needed to feed the people, and he certainly couldn’t get an answer from his idol god named Baal.
My friend, the world doesn’t have anything that will satisfy that hunger you feel. The world doesn’t have your answer. The President of the United States of America, our Congress, your medical doctor, your Therapist, your spouse, nor your teachers have the answer you seek. Mankind, in all of our wisdom, can’t solve even the smallest of the world’s problems. We can’t solve any of the global catastrophes that mankind is predicting without going back to the Stone Age, and even that wouldn’t help for long because our problem isn’t with our technology or modern conveniences – the problem is the power of sin in the hearts of men. Your only answer is in Jesus Christ!
Throwing more money at a school system that’s failing won’t turn it around as long as administrators aren’t willing to allow someone to pray to Jesus for help, or won’t allow the Word of God to go forth to change the hearts of the students and their families. Electing new Supreme Court Justices, or legislators and getting them to pass laws to legislate morality, or immorality, won’t help if we don’t allow the Blood of Jesus to wash away the sin and change the very nature of the sinner into a child of God.
Parents giving toys and gifts to their children won’t turn the tide if they aren’t willing to give them time and then tell them about Jesus. All we do is put a Band-Aid over the cancer. The cancer is sin and only Jesus can heal it!
The lepers couldn’t stay where they were. If they did, they would die of starvation long before the leprosy would take their lives.
My friends, a man or woman who does not know God, can sit right where they are and never make a move, but they must know that they are already dead in sin. They might be walking, talking and breathing but they are already dead. They are dead to the things of God. They are dead to the Word of God. They are dead to all that is holy, just and pure. They are dead in their sin, waiting for the grave to catch up with them, and then they will die forever in hell. You can’t sit there and not move or you will die.
If you can’t go to man for help, and you can’t sit still without being a dead man, what do you do?
The lepers made the only other choice they could make. They chose to go to the camp of their enemy. I am persuaded that the Syrian Army is a type of the Gospel in this story.
How can an enemy of Israel, bringing judgment upon Samaria for idolatry, be a type of the presence of God and of the gospel? Well, think about it. They were God’s instrument for bring Jehoram and Israel to their knees in surrender. They were the chosen nation to awaken Israel to realize how far they had fallen! Does that not mean that they were representing God’s message and God’s calling to Israel?
If you think of it in that fashion, you can go just a little further in that line of thought to realize that, to a sinner, lost without God, has God as his enemy! In fact we are told in James 4:4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
Therefore, the sinner and backslider of this world, is a friend of the world and an enemy of God. They can’t go to mankind for help. They can’t sit still and be delivered. They have but one choice left – to go to the camp of their enemy – and that enemy is the Lord Jesus Christ!
At the camp of the Syrian’s the lepers found deliverance, not just for themselves but also for all of Israel. They ran quickly to tell the story to all of Israel. God had given them a miracle and their enemy was gone.
Is that not the way it is when a sinner comes to God? Suddenly, their enemy called Jesus, whom they had hated, feared and resisted with all their might and with absolute stubbornness, became their One Way to deliverance and healing. His “camp” is not there to destroy, but to save. His Word is not there to control, or imprison as a slave to a lot of rules, but to set free from the bondage of sin. His Blood is not there to condemn you to death but to wash away your hunger and your sin and fill you with all good things.
The message of the gospel is good news today! It’s the message that we need to bring to the whole world.
1 Corinthians 1:23-24, "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
Most of you that hear or read this message have already answered the call of God in your life. You have already made that trip to the enemy’s camp and found deliverance. God, who was once your enemy, is now your Savior. But perhaps there is someone who needs to make that trip right now.
Have you looked to men for answers and found none? Have you decided to just sit still and not do anything and yet your life grows more troublesome and your hunger grows more each day and you know you have to do something? Then why not go to the enemy’s camp right now? Why not come to Jesus and let him provide what you really need most of all? Jesus is here waiting for you to come.
