2 Kings 7:2 – “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”
These are the words of the officer to prophet Elisha. What was the officer actually trying to mean? He was trying to say to Elisha, it is impossible. What you are saying is impossible and can never happen. He goes on to elucidate the level of impossibility. And he says, look even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, what you say will not happen.
The words of the officer echo the hopelessness he was going through. Utter hopelessness! No way my situation can change. No way I am going to see a better future. It is impossible!
Are you going through a similar hopeless situation today? Do you say it is impossible for a miracle to take place?
Let us see what is the context here.
2 Kings 6:25: There was a severe famine in Samaria. The Syrians had besieged Samaria; nothing was available now in Samaria. The famine was so severe that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
A shekel is worth about 15 gm of silver. So just to buy a donkey’s head, you need 750 gm of silver. Moreover, no one would dare eat a dove’s dung. But the famine was so severe that people wouldn’t mind eating that. But even that was unaffordable. The price of just one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings was worth 75 gm of silver. Would you give 75 gm of silver to buy just a quarter of dove’s droppings?
And as you read further, you find some heart-breaking events taking place.
Vs 28-29: Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”
The situation was so pathetic that a mother who begot a child was willing to boil and eat him. Will a mother ever do that? Imagine the extent of famine in Samaria!
This was the hopeless situation the entire nation was going through. Day by day, death was only coming closer to them. Parents might have watched their little ones dying before their eyes due to lack of food. Desperate need everywhere… distressing and horrendous!
At this juncture, the king of Samaria seeks to kill prophet Elisha. The king believed that God was responsible for this situation in the nation. So in his anger, he wanted to kill Elisha.
When the king’s messengers arrive, Elisha proclaims God’s word.
2 kings 7:1 - Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.
Elisha foretells a miracle that would end the famine.
There are three things about this foretold miracle that amazes me.
1. a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel
Consider the enormity of blessings. Eighty shekels for a donkey’s head and five shekels for one-fourth of a dove’s droppings… now in contrast just a shekel for a seah of fine flour and a shekel for two seahs of barley
Normally when a famine situation changes, the prices will come down little by little. Food products will become increasingly available day by day.
But here, the prophet speaks of a drastic change, which was not just hard to believe, but rather impossible to believer. Therefore the officer exclaims, “Look, even if theLord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”
2. Tomorrow….
The second amazing thing is that the timing of the miracle. Totally unbelievable! The miracle would take place and will take place tomorrow.
In the first place, it was hard to believe that a miracle of such an enormous scale would occur. Now, when it is said this miracle would take place tomorrow, it was even more difficult to believe. Had Elisha said the miracle would take place next year, everyone would have but believed. Perhaps if he said the miracle would take place next month, someone would have dared to believe. But he says, tomorrow. How can such a great miracle take place in such a short span? Impossible!
There is generally a human calculation to when a particular thing can take place. And many times, we want God to go by our timing. Here the officer would have calculated. For this situation to change, it would take a minimum of this period. By tomorrow, impossible! And he articulates his thoughts, “Look, even if theLord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”
God’s timing in our lives is always perfect. Psalmist says in Psalm 31:15, “My times are in your hands”. He knows when is the best time to perform a miracle in your life. Why did God wait for the famine to show its ugly face and then chose to perform a miracle all of the sudden?
He is able to do a miracle in your life too. You need to submit yourself in God’s hands and wait for his perfect timing. If you do so, the miracle would be awesome, unbelievable and would bring glory to God.
3. The third amazing thing is the location of miracle.
Prophet Elisha says the miracle would take place, and it would take place at the gate of Samaria. Gate of Samaria! Impossible! It was in Samaria that a child was killed so someone could have food… Will there be miracle at the gate of Samaria? Are you wondering… A miracle in my life, my family, my work… Impossible!
Prophet speaks of a drastic miracle in an impossible location at a very short span of time. Are you wondering, will there be drastic change in my circumstance; drastic improvement in my health; drastic growth in my finance.. Remind yourselves that God’s ways are unique.. Beyond comprehension…Beyond imagination.
In hopeless situation, it is hard to have hope. Hard to have faith in God. Hard to believe that a miracle is possible. But you need faith to experience a miracle. If not, you might miss out on a miracle.
And that’s exactly what happened to this doubting officer. What was the prophet’s answer in response to the officer’s words?
“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!” That is, the prophet says to the officer, the miracle will happen, but you will not experience it.
And as told by the prophet Elisha, the miracle took place in an amazing way.
Read vs 3 and 4: Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
There were four lepers at the gate of Samaria. We do not know the names of these lepers or any other details about them. But they take a bold step. May be the Syrians will have pity on us and let us live. Let us go. They take this bold step and go the camp of the Syrians. And as they entered the camp, something surprising awaited them.
There was no one in the camp. The Syrians had fled leaving behind all their valuables. These lepers ate and drank. It would have been months together They would have barely eaten. When people inside the city were suffering, the lepers at the outskirts of the city would have definitely not had food. So when the saw food in plenty, they were joyous. They ate to their full. They drank. Moreover, they took all the valuables. They went from one tent to another to find something.
You see the lepers - They were the first recipients of God’s miracle. Ideally, even if the city got rid of famine, the lepers would have got their share at last. But see how God works. God performed a miracle first in the lives of people who were rejected by the society. He cared for the oppressed.
Not only did God perform a miracle in their lives, but used these ordinary, outcast lepers to bring about the miracle to the rest of the nation.
God can perform a miracle in your lives and if you are willing and submissive, He will use you to bring a miracle in the lives of many others.
The lepers bring this good news to the rest of the people. They could have chosen to be quiet. They could have thought to themselves, why help those people who never even bothered about us. But they knew it was wrong. They knew if they did so, they are not doing what is right.
As a result, there is now such abundance in a drought-stricken nation.
Vs 16: Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
Whole of nation experienced this great miracle. Unfortunately however, the officer was not alive to witness or experience the miracle.
Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.
When God fights your battle, it will be supernatural. All you need to do is to surrender yourself, your family, your problem or your situation into God’s loving hands. The enemies, the Syrians, were strong. Had the king relied on human strength, it would have been impossible. Do not try to use your wisdom to come out of what you are going through. Just surrender in God’s hands and God will fight a winning battle. You just need to believe, have faith and be calm.
