UNBELIEF in God’s WORD will ‘DEPRIVE’ us of God’s BLESSINGS!
April 16
Bible Reading: 2 Kings Chapters 7-9
UNBELIEF in God’s WORD will ‘DEPRIVE’ us of God’s BLESSINGS!
"Now the king had
appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But
the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had
said, who spoke when the king came down to him. So it happened just as the man
of God had spoken to the king, saying, "Two seahs of barley for a shekel,
and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, shall be sold tomorrow about this time
in the gate of Samaria." Then that officer had answered the man of God, and
said, "Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a
thing be?" And he had said, "In fact, you shall see it with your
eyes, but you shall not eat of it." And so it happened to him, for the
people trampled him in the gate, and he died. (2 Kings 7:17-20)
The
background of this story is that Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria had launched a
major invasion of Israel and laid Samaria the capital under a long and
devastating siege. Food had become so scarce and expensive that Israelites
eventually resorted to cannibalism,
which is eating the flesh of other humans (6:24–30). King Joram of Israel was
powerless in this matter and had refused to accept responsibility for his
people’s plight. Instead, he was blaming the prophet Elisha for this crisis (v.
31). It was at this time that Elisha prophesied to the king that the siege
would end immediately and the basic food items like fine flour and barley would
be available so freely to everyone that their prices would drop drastically – all in a day’s time (7:1).
Listening to
Elisha’s prediction was an unnamed
officer of the king who refused to
believe the word of God through His prophet. He declared publicly that even
if God would make windows in heaven, this thing was not possible. He just could not believe that God could do
such an extraordinary miracle. This unbelief would later deprive him of God’s
blessing just as Elisha predicted: "In
fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it"
(7:2).
In
accordance with the prophecy of Elisha, fine flour and barley were sold at very
low prices that day itself. The
king’s officer (vs. 17) was appointed to control the crowd as it rushed from
the city. He witnessed the miracle and the excitement it created, but he could never participate in eating the
food; for he was trampled by the crowd he could not control, and he died.
Verses 18–20 reemphasize that the man died according to the word of the Lord
because of his unbelief. Unbelief robs us
of enjoying the blessing God chooses to give His children!
Let us be
assured that God will open the windows of heaven when we obey Him through giving. "Bring all the tithes into the
storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,"
says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven
and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to
receive it" (Mal 3:10).
