May it please God to bless our
souls this morning as we consider his word together. Let us turn
to the second book of the Kings chapter 7 and we'll read verse
9. The second book of the Kings
chapter 7 and verse 9. Then they said one to another,
we do not well. This day is a day of good tidings
and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning
light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that
we may go and tell the king's household." This account of the famine that
was in Samaria is an interesting account. And it sets before us
very clearly the amazing mercy and providence and blessing of
Almighty God. And also it shows to us how when
the Lord speaks prophecy through his servants, those words come
to pass. And surely in this account, it
is a record of God's wonderful favour and blessing. Naturally
speaking, this was a scene of absolute desolation to this town
of Samaria. Surrounded by the Syrians, out
of food, how was there ever to be any deliverance? And especially
in the way that Elisha was able to declare that it would come
about, deliverance would come about, an amazing deliverance
in just a few hours. What does that instruct us in? What does that teach us? Short it tells us that we have
a great God. short it shows us that nothing
is too hard for the Lord. We should therefore be blessed
with a desire for living faith to trust the Lord, to commit
our way unto the Lord, to trust also in Him that He will bring
it to pass. Indeed we sometimes think of
those words, faith laughs at impossibilities and says it shall
be done. We may have things in our lives
which may seem to be impossible. Nothing is impossible with God,
naturally or spiritually. Surely that should be a wonderful
encouragement to us as we read such accounts here. In the Word
of God, we may have woken up this morning and we may have
thought, well, I've got an impossible situation. How is that going
to be solved? How is that going to be worked
out? Well, my friends, the Word of God tells us to commit our
way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall
bring it to pass. And so we have here in this account
a wonderful deliverance that the Lord brought about to the
people in Samaria. And we see also how it was brought
about. When it was brought about by
God's wonderful movement and appearance in putting into the
hearts of the Syrians, into their minds, things which in fact did
not happen, were not happening. And then we see how these things
were discovered by unlikely characters. These things weren't found out
by great warriors, men of might and power, but by four lepers. Four lepers who were outside
of the city, And we might think, were they in no man's land? They
were really, weren't they? They weren't in the city, they
were outside the city, because of the leprosy. They weren't
in the camp of the Syrians. So they were therefore, as it
were, in no man's land. Well, perhaps you and I might
sometimes feel like that ourselves, in our spiritual life. We might
feel we're in no man's land. and we may not realise or think
or observe what to do or how to do. But here in this account
we have an encouraging situation, an encouraging account to be
a guide and a direction to us. Lepers were not people that were
able to mix with the other people. because of their bad condition,
because of their condition which was so contaminating to people
they may have come into contact with and so therefore they had
to live without the town, without the camp. You can read of the
The directions with regard to lepers in the book of Leviticus
and it's very clear lepers had to be estranged therefore from
the people. They weren't allowed to mix with
them and they therefore were separated. You may say well what's
the relevance of that today? Well the relevance to you and
me today is very simple because leprosy in the Word of God really
has the illustration of sin. And naturally, people couldn't
get rid of their leprosy. My friends, you and I cannot
naturally get rid of our sin. And sin is a very contagious
situation. Sin can very easily affect other
people. Sins that we may do can be picked
up by the people. can be contagious. And if someone is, as it were,
an outward and vile and wicked sinner, well, they need to be
kept away from. And so here we see these four
leprous people in a situation and not sure, really, what to
do. And we read together the account
in which they asked the question. And they said, why sit we here
until we die? See, if they remained in no man's
land, they wouldn't have any food. They would die. If they
went into the city, there wasn't any food. And in any event, people
wouldn't probably have given it to them. So therefore, they
would have died. And if they ventured and went
to the camp of the Assyrians, well, they might die, but they
might find mercy. And so therefore, they were faced
with those three options. And what were they to do? What
were they to do? Well, and they rose up in the
twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians because they said
we will enter into the city if we will enter into the city then
the famine is in the city and we should die there if we sit
still here we should die also now therefore come let us fall
into the host of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall
live and if they kill us we shall but die And so they rose up in
the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. Well, my friends,
we have similar illustrations in the Word of God. You may remember
King David. Well, King David, of course,
was a mighty king. He was a most blessed king. But
he didn't always do everything rightly. Sometimes he did those
things which were contrary to the Word of God and contrary
to the plan of God and in an unnecessary way. And there was
that occasion when David told Joab to number the people, the
people of Israel. Why did he do that? Well, it's
really to say, well, I've got a wonderful great host here.
Yes, to be thought well of. It's very dangerous, isn't it,
to kind of get on those lines and to try and bolster up ourselves
with numbers. It's very easy, isn't it, to
fall into that trap. And so here we have David in
that situation. And Job didn't encourage him
at all. Job wasn't a good man, but he didn't encourage David
at all. But David wouldn't listen to
him. And he instructed him to go and to number the people. And what do we read? And God
was displeased with this thing. Therefore he smote Israel. And
David said unto God, I have sinned greatly. Because I have done
this thing, but now I beseech thee, do away with the iniquity
of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly." Well, perhaps
we've done foolishly in our lives. We've done things which when
the Lord touches our conscience, touches our heart, we've realised
we've been very foolish. And we might think, well, perhaps
I can get away with that. David, you see, he confessed
what he'd done. But the Lord was to punish David. And God sent his prophet Gad
the seer, saying, go and tell David, thus saith the Lord, I
offer thee three things. Choose one of them, that I may
do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said
unto him, thus saith the Lord, choose thee. either through three
years' famine, or three months to be destroyed before thy foes,
while that the sword of thine enemies overtake thee, or else
three days the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land,
and the angel of the Lord, destroying throughout all the coast of Israel.
Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again
to him that sent me." David was in a great strait, wasn't he? What should he do? What should
he say? What should he select? Well,
this is what we read. David said, unto Gad, I am in
a great strait. Let me fall now into the hand
of the Lord, for very great are his mercies. But let not me fall
into the hand of man. Well, the Lord brought about
the pestilence, but he was merciful and he didn't destroy all Israel. And so here was David brought
down to this situation, not to choose himself, but to fall into
the hands of God. To fall into the hands of God
that the Lord might choose and might do that which was good
and right for him. And so here were these these
four lepers now, what should they do? What should they do? Well, they felt they should therefore
rise up and in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. They didn't know what was going
to befall them. What were they doing? They were
really casting all their selves upon the Lord. And then we have
another accounts of a very wonderful situation which existed and that
was in the case of Esther. You may remember the life of
Esther and how she faced a situation where that evil man had risen
up, Haman, and was determined to destroy all the Jews if he
could. He'd gone to the king and he
got an agreement and a writing that all the Jews should be slaughtered.
He didn't realize, of course, that Esther was, in fact, a Jewess. And although he hated Mordecai,
because Mordecai wouldn't come and bow down to him, He didn't
realise what was going to occur to him in a very sudden and a
very amazing way. And what happened was, we won't
go through the whole account, but Esther of course invited
Haman to a banquet and then she invited him again at the king's
request and he came to that banquet And we know that the Lord wonderfully
appeared for Esther, but the situation was that Esther had
to enter in, first of all, to the presence of the king, to
actually address the king. And what was her position? She knew that if she went in
before the king, and the king didn't hold out his golden scepter,
she would die. Death was the position that occurred
to all those the king didn't invite by holding out his golden
scepter. So what did Esther do? What did she say? She said to
Mordecai, go gather together all the Jews that are present
in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat nor drink three
days, night or day. I also with my maidens will fast
likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according
to the law, and if I perish, I perish." Well we know that
of course the king did come and he held out the golden sceptre
and Queen Esther was accepted. in a difficult situation. Well,
we have those two illustrations, really casting their care upon
God. And here we have then these four
lepers coming and rising up to go to the camp of the Syrians
in twilight. And surely it's very similar,
is it not, to that view, if we perish, we perish. And again,
we may say, well again, what is the point of that with regard
to a gospel situation? Well, the gospel situation really
is like this. God's people come to a time when
they feel themselves to be leprous. That means they feel themselves
to be sinners. They feel themselves perhaps
to have no hope in themselves. They don't know what to do. They
don't know what to do. Can they venture forward? Can
they go forward? Will they be condemned? Will
God cut them off? Will they lose their life? What are the options? To sit
still, to stay still, both our situations are conditions that
they would perish in. They need deliverance. They need
the blessing. They need to find a way of escape. And how is that to be fulfilled?
Will it be fulfilled? They just stand and stay still. Here are these four dappas, what
did they do? They rose up in the twilight to go on to the
camp of the Syrians. And when they would come to the
uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man
there. How different to what they expected. And how different that is often
in a spiritual sense. The reception that we receive
when we come casting all our care upon the Lord, thinking
because of our vileness and because of our evil that we won't receive
any favour. All we receive is condemnation
and all we receive is to be cut off. But here you see how very
different it was. The lines of the hymn are very
appropriate. I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and
sad. They didn't have anything to
offer, did they? They couldn't bring anything with them. They
might be accepted. They had to go just as they were. Esther had to come just as she
was. She could not demand any favour or any blessing. She didn't
know whether the Lord would hold out the golden sceptre. And these
four lepers, they didn't know what kind of reception there
would be. But what a very different scene
met them. As they ventured forward, they
rose up and they came into the camp of Syria. What had occurred? The Lord had gone before them. The Lord had gone before them
in an amazing way. And the Lord goes before his
people today. What does he do? He makes the crooked things straight.
He makes the rough places plain. He makes the mountains to flow
down. at his presence. So that perhaps which we feared
doesn't exist. And we find there's a time of
amazing favour and blessing. These people, these lepers, they
were hungry, they were thirsty, they needed food, they needed
What were they able to do? We're told they came to the uttermost
part of the camp, the very outside, and they went into one tent and
did eat and drink. My friends, you know, as God
gives us grace in our time of great need to come to the Saviour,
we find in Him that which our soul needs. Spiritual food and spiritual
drink. And what is that? What is spiritual
food and spiritual drink? Well, it's centered in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's to meditate upon what he
has done in his great and glorious work of salvation. It's to direct
us to His death. It's to direct us to His shed
blood. It's to direct us to His finished
work, that great work accomplished upon that cross at Calvary. It
is to feed upon Christ. It is to eat His flesh. in a
spiritual sense and to drink his blood, that means to meditate
upon that great and glorious sacrifice that was made to atone
for our sin. There we came, leprous, vile. What will we find? Would there
be any hope? Well, here were these four men. They came, didn't they? And they found that which they
didn't really expect to find. They ventured forward. They'd
gone forward. And so when they came, they had
to go forward, didn't they? They had to go forward. They
couldn't sit still. They had to venture forward.
It was as it were the unknown. But they go in the strength of
the Lord God. to rely upon his help that he
will come and reveal the blessing. And so they came then to the
outermost part of the camp. They went and they ate and they
drank and they carried that silver and gold and raiment and went
and hid it. Yes, they've been blessed and
we can think of that, can we not, in a spiritual way as we
might see some of the the treasures of God, the blessings of God,
the wonderful revelation that He shows to our soul, and there
may be that initial temptation to go away and hide it. That's
what these lepers did. They came again and entered into
another tent and carried the ensorcer and went and hid it.
Then they came and they said one to another, we do not well. Why did they make this statement? Why did they say, we do not well? It was because God had blessed
them. And it was because God was to
be honoured and glorified. And so they come and they say,
this day is a day of good tidings. And we hold our peace. Wasn't it a day of good tidings?
The enemy had disappeared. Wasn't that amazing? So my friend,
spiritually it is so. The Lord comes as it were the
enemy, the devil, who has been a great hinderer. He has endeavoured
to stop us, try to keep us sitting still. We find he is vanished,
he's a vanquished foe. And therefore we come and we
realise the condition that it's a day of good tidings, it's a
day of deliverance, it's a day of blessing, it's a day when
our soul has been directed to the only place of food and drink
for our souls. Lord strengthen us to venture
forward, to go into the camp of the Syrians. And here there's
been this wonderful understanding and wonderful blessing and wonderful
appearance as the enemy's not there, that we feared would attack
us. He's gone, he's fled. And we
found treasure, we found food and drink. Are we to turn away? Are we to keep it to ourselves?
No, said these leprous men. This day is a day of good tidings,
and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning,
some mischief will come upon us. Mischief is, or some punishment,
some punishment for not declaring what has occurred. This is a
day of good tidings. When we hold our peace, if we
tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon
us. Now therefore, come that we may go and tell the king's
household. Come and tell the king's household. Well, did they backtrack on that
statement? Did they say, well, no, I don't
think we will, we'll carry on and we'll keep this all to ourselves?
No, they didn't. They came and they called onto
the port of the city and they told them, saying, We came to
the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no man there,
neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and tents
as they were." Well, they told them the picture, didn't they?
They told them what they'd seen. My friends, that's true, isn't
it? You see, when the Lord God comes to our souls, He gives
us something to see in a spiritual way. Because what has occurred
is simply this. The scene that we were in of
darkness has been changed by his marvellous light. And that
marvellous light shines into our heart and what does it do? It reveals to us the Lord Jesus
Christ. Reveals to us the saviour of
sinners. What a great and glorious blessing
that is. Well, we're not to keep that
to ourselves. And so these lepers, they came. And the king arose at this good
news. He wondered whether it was true.
And he doubted it. He thought it was just a plan
of the Syrians to defeat the Samaritans. But no, it wasn't.
And eventually the king agreed to allow them to send a couple
of horses to discover what the true situation was. And so they
took two horses and they were told, go and see, go and see. Surely there's a direction here,
is there not? As we may be able to come, declare what the Lord
has done for our souls, If you go forth then, as it were, and
tell the King's House, the Church of God, what has occurred, well,
they want to go and see if it's true. My friends, it's a blessing,
isn't it, to go and see the fulfilment of God's work, and they went
and saw. And it came to pass so wonderfully that what they
saw was all the way was full of garments and vessels which
the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the Scythians
returned and told the king, yes, it was good news. It was good
news. They hadn't had to fight in that
battle. There are many occasions, you
know, in the word of God when the Lord appears amazingly so that
the people of God have not had to fight, have not had to fight. And so, that perhaps which we
feared, we may have thought was going to be a great battle, and
I don't think I'm going to win. Well, you see, when you come
to it, there's no battle to fight. Why? Because the Lord's gone
before. The Lord's gone before. And there
has been a wonderful deliverance. And what's the situation? The
situation is to declare the good news. The good news to the household
of faith, to the Church of God. And so they were able to say,
today is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. Well, my friends, if we look
at ourselves today, it's a wonderful thing that we can trace out in
our spiritual life the similarity of this condition. Where there
we are, we've been cast out because we're a leprous, because we're
a sinner. We're cast out and we're by ourselves
as it were, without the town, without the city, without the
camp. What shall we do? What shall we do? Shall we stay
and perish? Or shall we venture forward? Venture forward. You know, it's
interesting, isn't it? These men, they rose up in the twilight. In the twilight. As it were,
they'd just been given, or just had enough light to make their
way to the camp of the Syrians. Enough light to do that. There
weren't any street lights, anything like that, and the camp of the
Syrians would no doubt have been in darkness. But they ventured
forward in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they came, they came. They ventured forward and they
came. So for us today, to think of
that in our spiritual sense, if we are given grace to venture
forward as it were in the twilight, we don't see things very clearly,
but we go forward. We don't stay in a place of desolation,
in a place where we know if we remain where we are we shall
die. We go forward and come into the camp, into the camp, into,
as it were, the church of God. And there we find blessing and
favour. And there we're able then to
partake of that heavenly food, that which we were longing for,
that which we so needed, spiritual food and spiritual drink. And there was, you see, these
seekers, What were they doing? They spoke one to another. And they said, we do not well
this day. This is a day of good tidings. And we hold our peace if we tarry
till the morning light. It wasn't very long, was it?
It wasn't very long. But they wanted to come and tell
the good news. Well, it's a great blessing if
you and I have some good news to speak of. Good news to speak
of, to be able to come and tell to sinners round, what a dear
Saviour we have found, and point to thy redeeming blood and say,
behold, the way to God. Very simple, isn't it? A very
simple statement, but it's so true, isn't it? Because in this
picture we have here, they came and told the king's household,
and they came and told them, there was food and drink, and
there was treasures to be had, and the enemy had fled. It was
a time of deliverance. It's a very simple picture, isn't
it? But it's a very true picture to the true church of God. And it's a wonderful thing if
we can view it that way, if we look in our own hearts and be
able to observe God's gracious and glorious work toward us in
this way, and that he may give us such strength, and therefore,
if we haven't ventured forward, to venture forward, to go in
the strength of the Lord God, to make mention of his righteousness
and of his only." This is what these people came, these lepers
came, and they told the good news. Well, it's good news, is
it not? And you know there's a number
of very beautiful pictures that we have, of course, in the Word
of God to encourage us in this way. And the Psalms describe
to us, do they not, so often the spiritual state, the spiritual
condition of the true Church of God. And we can read in the
Psalms, in Psalm 34, The last verse in that psalm,
it's a well-known psalm, the Lord redeemeth the soul of his
servants, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. You see, these people, they were
trusting, they went forward, they might find deliverance.
And may God help us to trust in the Lord, trust in him. And this is the view of David
himself when he was able to tell us that none of them, none of
them, none, everyone that is able by grace to put their trust
in the Lord shall not be desolate. No, they would indeed receive
favour and blessing from Almighty God. And Psalm 55 directs us
again in a similar way. And again, David speaking, he
says, Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen
violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go about,
upon the walls thereof, mischief also, and sorrow in the midst
of it. Wickedness is in the midst thereof.
Deceit and guile depart not from the streets. For it was not an
enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me.
Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou a man,
mine own acquaintance, my guide and my acquaintance. We took
sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company. Let death seize upon them and
let them go down quick into hell. For wickedness is in their dwellings
and among them. As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me." David's confidence was in his
God. There was no hope, was there?
Anywhere else but in Almighty God. And my friends, that's where
we've come to, do we not? God brings us to this situation
where there's no hope in ourselves. And again, Psalm 115. Oh Israel,
the whole church of God, oh Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is
their help and their shield. Oh house of Aaron, trust in the
Lord. He is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help
and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. He will bless us. He will bless
the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Israel.
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. Encouraging words, are they not?
For the true living household of faith to realize that God
is faithful. And then Psalm 116, you may remember,
it opens with these words, I love the Lord because he has heard
my voice. and my supplications." Well,
what cause of rejoicing that is, isn't it? When the Lord hears
our voice and our supplications. And he comes at the end of this
psalm, he says, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows
unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the courts
of the Lord's house in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem, praise
ye the Lord. And the church of God have good
cause to come and to praise the Lord for all that he has done.
And so may we bless God today. We have such an account, an encouraging
account for us in our very conditions to venture forward and to realize
the truth of these words. We do not well this day. We do
not well. This day is a day of good tidings
and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning
light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that
we may go and tell the King's household. Amen.