Don't Play It Safe #12

I

n II Kings 7 we have a dramatic event where more than one person took risks in obedience to God and saw Him do great things. The chapter begins:

1 But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” 2 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

The Syrians had squeezed the life out of the people of Jerusalem, taking all the food from their fields and their vineyards.  They had nothing left to give them strength.  Then Elisha spoke this promise from God: that the next day they would have plenty to eat. How was that possible? It would take months to raise any food.  If Elisha was wrong, he would face an angry mob.  But Elisha trusted God and spoke up. Next...

3 Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” 5 So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there.  

This handful of men were the most desperate. Usually they would live off the leftovers people offered them, but in time of famine they had less than nothing.  But they were thinking clearly.  If they went to the Syrians, they could be rejected for two reasons: they were they enemy and they were lepers. They had the courage and clear thinking to do what no others would do: go out to ask for food.  If they had not done so, no one else would have thought to do so.  Because they did not play it safe, everyone ate that night.