Well may it please God to bless
us together this evening as we meditate in his word. 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 reading 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. It's very wonderful really to
know how the Lord God in his great mercy and providence has
recorded such accounts like this for the Church of God down to
the ages, and indeed for us today, to realize that there is a great
God who rules and reigns and who controls all things, that
He controls everything in the hearts of men and women. And as we read through, as you
read through the Word of God, there are a good number of cases
where there was a need for a victory to be fought or something similar
to happen and God in His great providence ordained that it should
occur without any physical battle. And that's what's just happened
in this occasion here. Because the Syrians had come
and surrounded Samaria, and they intended to starve them out.
That was a common form of battle in those days, to surround another
town, which usually was walled in, and to stop the people getting
out to that town to get food. And therefore, in due time, of
course, food ran out, the people starved and it usually meant
they had to surrender. Well, that was the situation
here. The people were in the town of
Samaria and they were starving. There wasn't any real food. And
we read the very sad position which existed with the woman
who told about the child that had been eaten. Because they
hadn't got any food. And of course the effect it had
on the king, he actually was there in sackcloth because of
the condition. And he thought of course it had
been brought about by Elisha the prophet. therefore he he
said that well he would take the head off Elisha the prophet
that day. Well of course it wasn't because
of Elisha at all but nonetheless Elisha was a prophet and Elisha
was able to prophesy and say to the elders which had come
to him As we read in the beginning of the seventh chapter, Hear
ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord about tomorrow,
about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel,
and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.
And of course, just so we understand that, what it meant was that
there was a famine There was nothing really to have as we
read. Things were very, very expensive.
And yet here was going to be the total reverse. Well, how
was that to happen? Again, it seemed a real impossibility. But nonetheless, we realize how
God works out his Providences, and this was a wonderful occasion. And so we come to the position
there were these four leprous men, and of course we spoke about
leprosy this morning, but this is a very different scene. And
these leprous men were outside the gate, they weren't of course
allowed to come into Samaria, because of the leprosy which
they had, which of course was very contagious. So there they
were outside the gate. Without any food, what were they
to do? And so they spoke and they said
one to another, why sit we here until we die? If we say we will
enter into the city, then the famine is in the city. and we
shall die there. And if we sit still here, we
die also. Now therefore come, and let us
fall into the hand of the Syrians. If they save us, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall die. You may remember there was a
very similar kind of situation in the life of David, when David
very foolishly wanted to number the people to see how many people
there were under him in the city. There was no need to do that.
And Joab, his lieutenant, was told to go and do it. He wasn't
very happy at all to do it. And he didn't do it totally,
but he did make an effort. And the fact was it was against
God's will. And God, by the prophet, came
and said to David, he'd done this wrong deed. And therefore
there were three things that he could choose. And one was
a famine. And there were three things.
And he wasn't sure what to ask for. So David very simply said,
let us fall into the hands of God, for his mercies are great. Well, And so they were, and so
they are here. And so what these men say is
indeed true. And therefore come, let us fall
into the host of the Syrians. If they save us, we shall live.
If they kill us, we shall die. And then they rose up in the
twilight and went into the camp of the Syrians. And we read together
what happened. Quite amazing. They came. to the uttermost part of the
camp of Syria, the edge, and there was no one there. Normally
there would, of course, have had guards, but there was no
one there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear
a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of
a great host. And they said one to another,
Lo, the King of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites,
and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they
arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their
horses, and their asses, even the camp, as it was, and fled
for their life. So there was no one left in the
camp of the Syrians. And then these four lepers, they
came to the uttermost part of the camp, And they went into
one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried then silver and gold
and raiment, and went and hid it, and came again, and entered
into another tent, and carried then also, and went and hid it. And then we find really quite
a wonderful thing happen. Again they spoke one to another,
and they said, 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. Well, this was a very
wonderful position to have arrived at. They could have just carried
on, of course, taking, plundering all the stuff that the Syrians
had left behind. But they realized this was not
a good thing to do. And clearly God had touched their
conscience and they realized what they were doing was not
right. and how important it is still
today for us to find ourselves in a position. We may be doing
things which is not right. And so the reaction was, they
said, this is a day of good tidings. There was some good news to spread
abroad. And they said, 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. Well, that's a very obvious situation,
we might think. But I believe it has a very relevant
position to the Church of God. Because the Church of God are
often blessed, and sometimes the people who've been blessed,
they just keep it to themselves. They keep it tight to their chest.
They don't tell anybody about it. You might say, well, is that
a good thing? Well, no, it's not a good thing.
In actual fact, it's a wrong thing. Because here was a wonderful
deliverance for the Samaritans. A deliverance they didn't expect,
and yet there it was. And now they found it. And so
they were, as they started, absorbing the plunder themselves, and now
they realised this is not a good thing to do. We don't do it rightly. We do not well. Well, it's wonderful
when the Lord God speaks to us in our lives and we find that
we are not doing things well. We do not well. Clearly, they have been pricked
in their heart. Clearly, the Spirit of God had
come upon them. lepers as they were and it's
wonderful isn't it really because the Lord could have chosen many
people to do this and to find it out but who was used we might
say outcasts people have been thrown out of the city because
of their leprous condition we might say the worst of the citizens
these were the people that God had chosen. These were the people
who were to be used to find out this wonderful thing which had
occurred. And that is often the case today. God chooses people who may perhaps
think they're the very worst. Well that's not a bad thing.
We should all think we are the worst people, shouldn't we really?
Like I've said sometimes, especially when we're going through the
Philippians, the Apostle Paul, in his life, he described himself
not as the great Apostle with a great knowledge of all the
things of God, but the very opposite. He classified himself as less
than the least of all saints. The Apostle didn't have a high
opinion of himself. And these people, these lepers,
they didn't have a high opinion of themselves. And it's a good
thing when God brings each of us to that scene where we don't
have a high opinion of ourselves. The good news is, if we have
a high opinion of our God, a high opinion of our Saviour, a high
opinion of that one who has had mercy upon us, a high opinion
of that one who has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. And so, as we think in terms
of these words, this is a day of good tidings, well, we perhaps
ought to ask ourselves the question, have we had days of good tidings? You may say, well, just explain
that a little bit. Well, let me explain it in this
way. If God has looked down upon us
and blessed us and touched our hearts and shown to us His goodness and His mercy and
His favour and His blessing. And He hasn't dealt with us as
we deserve. We haven't been cast out. We
haven't been cut off. We haven't been struck down.
We're still here on the earth. God's goodness and mercy has
been toward us. And therefore, we know some good
tidings. God's dealings with our soul
is wonderful news. It's good tidings. And you know
the great problem is in the day and age in which we live. So
many hold their peace. How many do not testify of what
God has done. They just carry on without being
thankful. for what the Lord has done. We
do not will. Just like these lepers, they
had been shown they weren't doing well. Oh, it would be a wonderful
thing in our day and age if many hearts were touched by the Spirit
of God to realise they're not doing well. They've got some
good news, but they keep it to themselves. They don't testify
of the mercy and the goodness and the grace and the love of
Almighty God. Whereas these lepers said, this
day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace. It's wonderful,
really, that we have a God who's given us a great book, the Bible. And in that book, we find so
many wonderful pictures for us, wonderful statements. And here
is one of them, which perhaps describes our case even tonight. And as we read through, we might
think, well, of course, the Kings and Chronicles, et cetera, really
just historical accounts. Well, they're not just historical
accounts. They have much teaching in them. And here in this verse is much
teaching for us today. Much teaching for the Church
of God. And we shouldn't say, well, I
don't think it has any relevance to me. You know, that's because
we don't want it to have any relevance to me. And we think,
well, Let's pass on. I don't want to take this to
heart. I don't want to think about this
very much. But it's good when the Spirit of God shows to us
the relevance of such words and the goodness of God in recording
such a very simple account to pose a question to our hearts
as to whether we're doing the same thing in our lives. We do not will. This day is a
day of good tidings and we hold our peace. I'm very conscious
that in the day and age in which we live, there are many people
who hold their peace. Put it another way, They don't
like to nail their colours to the mast. They don't really want
to tell what God has done. They don't really want to honour
the Lord in what he's blessed them with, because they look
ahead and they think, oh, this might be embarrassing. This might
be difficult. This might be costly to me. I might lose some of my friends. I might not be able to do what
I wanted to do. And yet here we have a very straightforward
and very simple case of these four leprous men. And remember,
as I've intimated, these men were probably, to all outward
appearance, the worst people in this town of Samaria. And
perhaps you and I may feel to be the worst people, perhaps
in the town of Red Hood and Reingard, or perhaps wherever it might
be. We might think, well, we're really a bad person. And yet what a wonderful thing
it is to think that God had mercy upon these leprous people, And
what a wonderful blessing it is if God has had mercy upon
us. If we tarry till the morning
light. Again, there was plenty of opportunity
to say, well, perhaps we'll carry on what we're doing and then
perhaps tomorrow we'll spread the good news. Well, that wasn't
the case with these lepers. If we tarry till the morning
light, some mischief will come upon us. They didn't know. And we don't know, do we? Sometimes we hold back. Hold back. And you may say, well,
why is that? I'll tell you why it is. The
devil never wants the work of God to be shown. He never wants that to be observed. He wants it to be hidden. And
that's why we find a case recorded like this. A word of instruction,
a word of direction. Some mischief will come upon
us. Well, they didn't know. but they
were fearful that it might come upon them. And that would be
a good thing, wouldn't it, in the day and age in which we live,
if people were fearful that mischief might come upon them because
they hadn't testified of the good work of Almighty God, the
good tidings which they had to declare. And in our lives, really,
there are so many things, aren't there? that we could speak about. I hope there are anyway. Things
naturally in our natural life, and things spiritual which are
in our spiritual life. All these things, you know, we
ought to acknowledge as emanating from the good hand of our God. And come to that conclusion,
just like these lepers, we do not will. The devil will say,
you're doing a good job. You're doing OK. Just carry on.
Don't worry. No, says the word of God. This
day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace, which
is not a good thing. It's not a good thing. The word
of God has a very clear direction to us. It's this. Those that honor me, I will honor. And those that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed." So these men were faced with the opportunity
of declaring what they'd found or keeping it to themselves.
And they realized by keeping it to themselves, they weren't
doing a good thing. We do not well. We do not well. What a blessing it is when the
Holy Spirit convicts us in a similar way. We live in a day of small
things, relatively so. But it's a blessing that there
are those small things and we shouldn't despise those small
things. And sometimes we think they're
small things, but in reality, they're big things. They're great
things. They're things to praise God
for and not to hide them. Again, we have the example, don't
we, in the Sermon on the Mount, where the Lord Jesus himself
gives that example of a candle being put on a candlestick. and
lit so that it gives light to all around. And not to hide the
light. Not to, the expression is, put
it under a bushel. That was a container, which therefore
the light wouldn't have been seen. No, it is to be displayed. God has blessed us with light,
spiritual light. It is to be displayed. You may say, well why? Because
it's His light. It's the light which He has given
us. And we shouldn't therefore hide
it. We should display it, put it on a candlestick, so that
people can see the wonder of this light. Naturally speaking,
light in a dark place is a wonderful blessing. My friends, in a dark
spiritual world, The spiritual work of God is a wonderful blessing. And it's a blessing that we are
to display because that blessing brings honour and glory to our
God. And our lives, as I often tell
you, is not for our own glory. It's for the glory of God. We
are His workmanship. The work which He's done in our
hearts is to be shown and to be set forth. We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings. And what a mercy it is when the
Lord has shone His light into our heart. And that light has
revealed to us the Lord Jesus Christ. as our Saviour. This is a wonderful light. This
is a wonderful blessing. And my friends, how we need to
set it forth and praise God for it, to be able to come and truly
say from our hearts, Hallelujah. Yes, the Lord God omnipotent
reigns. He has worked a great work in
my heart. The Lord worked a great work
here on this occasion against the Syrians. They fled. They fled. Sometimes you and
I may think, oh, there's going to be a battle. Oh, no, you think
wrong, perhaps. There may not be a battle. The
enemy may have fled. Therefore what you expected to
be a big battle is not a big battle because the enemy is no
longer there. What a mercy we have a God who
knows how to deal with us and how to bring honor and glory
to His great and holy name. If these Syrians had been left
to fight and the Samaritans had had to fight them. There might
have been a great, great battle. And perhaps the Samaritans might
have won. But you know, the Samaritans
would then no doubt have said, well, we fought the Syrians and
we won the battle. And they would claim the glory. And they would be proud of their
achievements. But in this instance, there was
no possibility of them claiming any great victory themselves.
What had happened? God had brought about a victory. And God had brought about a victory
in an amazing way, without the Samaritans fighting at all. Our God reigns today in exactly
the same way as He did when this occurred. He reigns today in
exactly the same way as He always has done when He created the
earth. And He reigns today in the same
way that He always will do. What a blessing it is when you
and I realise our God reigns. What a mercy when you know He
reigns in our heart. He rules in our heart. Yes, we
don't rule ourselves. Perhaps sometimes we want to.
We want to produce the effect. These people could not glory
in any effect at all, could they? All they could do was to glory
in what God had done in bringing about a wonderful victory, a
wonderful situation. And therefore, how true it is. We do not will. 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. Yes, they knew where to go. They
didn't want to just tell anybody of no consequence. Not that that's
wrong. But they wanted to actually tell
the king. So the news would go far and
wide. What a good thing that is for
us today. In our little lives. Because what does this represent? The king's household. Well, I
guess you can guess. The king's household is the Church
of God. And it's the Church of God that
love to hear good news of the work of Almighty God. It's the
Church of God that rejoins together to hear what God has done. And so they did come to the king. They did tell the king. And you
may think, well, that's great. It's going to be easy now. The
king's going to pat on the back and elevate them to some high
position. Well, the king didn't believe
what they said. Didn't believe what they said.
So don't be disappointed if sometimes people don't believe what you
say. you can still rely upon what
God has done. And as we read here together,
so they came and called unto the porter of the city. So they
weren't able to go into the city because of their neprosy, and
they had to call the porter And they told him, 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 the tents as they were. And he called the porters, and
they told it to the king's house within. Well, the good news was
spreading. And the king arose in the night
and said unto his servants, I will now tell and show you what the
Syrians have done to us. They know that we'd be hungry,
therefore they've gone out of the camp to hide themselves in
the field, saying, when they come out of the city, we shall
catch them alive and get into the city. There are people sometimes
who doubt the work of God, who doubt the glorious work of God,
and perhaps say, well, we don't think these things can be. That's
why we have an encouraging statement and account here, to not be put
off, to not be discouraged, should that occur, but to recognize
that, well, it's all part of the plan of Almighty God, because
there was, you see, in the king's palace, one of his servants,
One of his servants who said, Let some take, I pray thee, five
of the horses that remain, which are left in the city. Behold,
they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it. Behold, I say, they are even
as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed. let us send
and see yes what a blessing it was that god in his providence
had placed a man in the palace to go and argue with the king
that he should not just ignore it and so they were able to take
two chariot horses the king sent after the host of the Syrians
saying go and see so they weren't to be discouraged initially it
seemed that way sometimes it may seem so in our life we may
be discouraged but no press on there may be one in the king's
palace there may be one in the church of God who understands
and doesn't want this to be passed by And so we find, and they were
told to go and see. And they went after them unto
Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels,
which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers
returned and told the king. Yes, they came back. The news
was true. It wasn't false. It was true
what those lepers had said. And now there was confirmation
of it. And so the king then appointed
the lord on whose hand he leaned to have charge to organize it. Well, of course, that man, he
disbelieved, as we read previously, what would happen. He didn't
believe it. But nonetheless, it came to pass
and we should recognize that God's Work does come to pass. And the result was that this
man who didn't believe, although he was important next to the
king, yet you see the people trod upon him and he died. And again, a fulfilment of the
prophecy of Almighty God. God never fails. God's way is
always right. God's way always comes to pass. Always comes to pass. Never be discouraged. Always
recognize that God is on the throne. Men are not on the throne. They might think they are. The
devil might think he's on the throne, but he's not. God is
on the throne. And God does that, which is in
accordance with His will and His purpose. And so here we have
this statement here before us. And they said one to another,
We do not well this day. It 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. And so there was obviously
agreement with these four lepers to do just that. They didn't
argue and say, well, no, I don't think we should. I think we should
carry on taking the spoil. No, they were obviously unanimous
in agreeing to do this. What a good thing it is when
those who have received the blessing from the Lord are unanimous in
their desire to do the Lord's will and indeed to honour him
in that doing. Because that's the same really
here isn't it when we say this is a day of good tidings and
we hold our peace. Well I wonder tonight as we look
into our little lives and it is good to always be found looking
into our lives and to find a comparison with the truth of God's word.
So it's not something which is different. We may think, well,
I've got a pretty strange life and I've got a pretty unusual
experience. In any case, people won't accept
what I say. Well, initially, the king didn't
want to receive it. but he did receive it. And it
was true. And the Lord had appeared. And
the Syrians had fled. And there was a great and glorious
victory which the Samaritans had no part in. God gained the victory. Again, another similar account
in the Word of God. You may remember the case of
King Jehoshaphat. When he was in a really difficult
state, he was in being fought against, the enemy was all round
about him. He didn't know what to do. But
he did. He prayed under God. And he said,
there's great enemies all around us. And we know not what to do,
but our eyes are upon thee. He did know what to do, you see.
He thought he didn't, but he did. His eyes were upon the Lord. And perhaps tonight, you may
think, well, I really don't know what to do. Look to the Lord. Look to the
Lord. And then there was that prophet
Benaniah who was raised up to tell the people and the king
what would happen. And he told them, there'll be
no need to fight in this battle. What? All the enemy all around
me, not to fight? No, there'll be no need to fight
in this battle. God graciously and wonderfully
appeared. And what happened? The enemy
turned upon themselves and destroyed each other. But what had happened
prior to that? Jehoshaphat believed what Ben
and I said. He believed they would gain the
victory and he believed they would not have to fight in the
battle. So he instructed them to begin to praise the Lord. There was no victory. But they
commenced to praise the Lord, believing there would be a victory.
And so there was a glorious victory. They didn't have to fight in
that battle. The Lord appeared. And that may
be so in our lives. We may think there's a difficult
time ahead, a battle ahead. Well, we may be very wrong. Perhaps
the Lord will appear in a wonderful way, so we don't have to fight. in the battle. The Lord appeared
here, didn't he? In a wonderful way. So the Samaritans
did not have to fight against the Syrians. And yet, how fearful
they had been. Well, it's good, isn't it, if
we can come. And as the lepers decided to
do, to go and tell the king's household. Come and hear all
ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for
my soul. That's good news, isn't it? That's
news which is encouraging to the Church of God. It's news
which brings honour and glory to God. What a mercy and what
a favour. And if you see, the good news
is that the Lord has shot into our hearts and shown us what
we are. an unworthy sinner, and shown
us what He is, a glorious Saviour, and to be able to tell of His
wonderful love toward us. As John says, not that we loved
God, but that He loved us. His love to us has turned us
to love Him. You see, everything emanates
from our God. It all commences with our God. It doesn't commence with us.
We don't think we're a great person. God will have all the
honour and God will have all the glory and God therefore will
have the victory and Satan will be a vanquished foe. He will be defeated. He will
not be able to stand. and God's name will be honoured
and glorified. Well it will be a wonderful time
of blessing like it was here. They found out as they went forward
there was this great victory which had been granted to them
through the Lord's goodness and mercy and all our victories Spiritual
and natural are through the Lord's goodness and mercy. What a good
thing it is then, if you and I can come and commit our way
unto the Lord, to trust also in Him, that He will bring it
to pass. I've said earlier, the Lord never
fails. The Lord is very merciful, and
my friends, He has the glory. You and I will desire that He
has the glory. You won't want the glory. You'll
want Jesus truly to be in your heart and in the hearts of those
you tell. The King of kings and the Lord
of lords. Then said they 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,
morning light, So mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore,
come that we may go and tell the king's household.