II Kings Chapter 7
Please read: II Kings 7 –
The king of Israel was a man who blamed God and blamed the prophet Elisha for all the troubles that they were experiencing. The Syrians had encamped their army around their capital city of Samaria not letting any persons in or out. It was a cruel way to die – starvation. The king’s solution to the problem was to take the head of Elisha and to declare that he was done waiting on the LORD to save them.
The king had sent his best man to go and capture Elisha, his captain of the army. Elisha told the captain a prophecy that he refused to believe. The prophecy was that there would be food to sell tomorrow. Because he did not believe the word of the Lord, the captain was told that tomorrow he would witness flour and barley being sold at the gate of the city Samaria, but he would never get to eat of the food.
Let's Reflect
1. What did the captain say to Elisha that showed his lack of faith in the prophecy Elisha spoke? It seems that he had forgotten that his forefathers were given manna from heaven when they wandered in the wilderness before entering the promised land.
2. There were 4 men who stayed at the gate of the city who discovered that the Syrians had abandoned their posts. Those 4 were men had leprosy and knew they would die from their disease or die from starvation. What did they decide to do in the middle of the night?
3. To the 4 lepers there seemed no explanation as to why the Syrians had just disappeared, but we know why. What does the Bible tell us happened that night?
4. The 4 men went into the tents of the Syrians and discovered all sorts of things. It was obvious they had brought enough supplies with them to maintain their position until the deed was done – killing the people of Samaria by starvation. What did the 4 men find in those tents?
5. They began to feel guilt keeping all this food and loot for themselves and knew they must report it to the king of Israel even if it meant waking him up in the middle of the night. According to verse 12 what was the king’s response to hearing the news?
6. One of the king’s servants was brave enough to ask if they could go and see if the news was true. What did they discover?
7. When news got out to the people that there was food to be had, it would have been mass chaos. The king appointed his top man, that captain that had gone out to capture Elisha to stand at the gate. (Most likely he wanted the captain there in case the Syrians returned and would enter the city and capture the king). But what happened to the captain in all the chaos of the people trying to get their share of the food?
