Hi how are you all today? I hope you are well. The weather is still cold in my city and the wind is blowing a gale today. Some people in my town lost power as a tree fell on powerlines. Thank goodness we didn’t. How is the weather in your town.
Today I want to look at the story that starts in 2 Kings 6:24 and finishes in chapter 7. It is the story of the famine in Samaria. It had become so severe that mothers were eating their children. Yuck!!! These were desperate desperate times. The king was so mad about this that he wanted to kill the prophet – get rid of the word of God.
The prophet Elisha spoke and said tomorrow there will be food in abundance. What?? How can that be?? But who knows it only takes one person to look at their past and want to move on, look at their present and decide it’s not good and take a gamble on their future. That’s what some lepers did. We pick up their story in verse 3 of chapter 7.
The four lepers were sitting at the entrance to the gate. In those days if you had leprosy you were banned to the outside of the city generally forever as it wasn’t a curable disease, unless a miracle happened. In verse 4, they make a profound statement – if we say we will enter the city, the famine is there and we will die.
They were basically saying we can’t go back to our past life in the city because even if we were healed, there is famine there and we will die. Some of us have come out of past situations that we wouldn’t like to return to. We literally can’t go back and relive our past or even change it- so any hope in that has now died.
They then started to look at their present. They said- if we sit here, we will die too. So for these guys, their present held no joy or peace either. As we go through life, sometimes we put a great deal of focus on today. I will never get through today – the circumstances are too bad, I will never get over this 24 hour virus, I can’t pay my bills today – the situation looks so hopeless and we feel like we are stuck in today. But I want to tell you, your future is coming.
The lepers then said to each other- let’s go to the enemy’s camp and if they keep us alive we will live but if not we will die. Your future gives you a choice of life and death. You can choose to live your future in a different way that brings life or live your future the same way you are now which will bring death.
So the lepers started on their way to the enemy’s camp. When they arrived there, there was no-one there but what was there was provision. You see when we get up, dust ourselves off and move into our future, we shake off fear. When fear leaves, the enemy leaves. But what is waiting for us is provision.
But the provision is not only for us but also for others. In verse 9, they decided to go and tell the good news of provision to the kings household. This was news to be shared.
But what happened next in verse 16. All the people of the town went out and plundered the camp. The famine was over. Provision was there for all.
For us this is an amazing lesson. What does God want to do in our future that will provide provision for many. Let’s wake ourselves up and get out of our present, stop wallowing in the past, stop living in fear and embrace the future.
It is time for us to arise to a glorious future that God has for us and everyone else. Are you excited? I am! Let’s go.
Have an amazing week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you
Karen
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