2 Kings 6. 2 Kings 6. Verse 24. And it came to pass after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria,
gathered all his host and went up and besieged Samaria. Now, Samaria is where the king
of Israel was. It's part of Israel. And besieging
is where you cut off the supply line and nobody can eat. You
cut off the supply line, nobody has anything to eat and you're
gonna either starve them out or they're gonna give up and
that's what was going on. Verse 25, and there was a great
famine in Samaria and behold they besieged it until an ass's
head was sold for four score pieces of silver and the fourth
part of a cab of dove's dung. for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was
passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him saying,
help me, help my lord, oh king. And he said, if the lord do not
help thee, when shall I help thee, out of the barn floor or
out of the winepress? We don't have any food, I don't
have any food. And the king said unto her, what aileth thee? And
she answered. This woman said unto me, give
thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat
him. And I said unto her on the next
day, give thy son that we may eat him, and she hath hid her
son. Who of us doesn't flip out when
we read of someone killing their child, boiling them and eating
them? That's what was going on here.
And it came to pass when the king heard these words of the
woman that he rent his clothes. And he passed by upon the wall,
and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon
his flesh. He was so disturbed over what
he just heard. He was upset. Then he said, here's
his response to this, God do so and more also to me, if the
head of Elisha, the son of Shaphath, shall stand on him this day.
This is Elisha's fault. It's because of Elisha that we're
having this horrible time here. And I have no doubt that he remembered
Elijah and he blamed Elijah when he was a boy, his father, you
remember the famine that was in the land. And Elisha prayed
that it might not rain, and it didn't. And Jeroam was the son
of Ahab and Jezebel, and he remembered that taking place. And so what's
he saying about all this? This is Elisha's fault. He's
prayed for this to take place, and this is what's happening.
This is Elisha's fault. But Elisha set his house, and
the elders set with him. And the king sent a man from
before him. But ere the messenger came to
him, he said to the elders, see ye how this son of a murderer
Ahab has sent to take away my head. Look when the messenger
cometh, shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is not
the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he yet
talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him
and said, and he said, this is the words of Jerome, the king
of Israel, behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I
wait for the Lord any longer? Then Elisha said, hear ye the
word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, 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. Tomorrow
there's gonna be plenty to eat. And the story goes on in chapter
seven, but let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
the name of thy blessed son. And we ask for your help, the
teaching of your spirit. We ask for hearts that understand
and receive your word. We ask that you teach us what
it means to glory in thy son. And Lord, deliver us from our
natural thoughts. And give us the grace to hear
your word. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. How did you feel when you listened
to that passage of scripture being read? A woman killing her
son, then throwing it in a pot of boiling water, and her and
her friend eating her son, and waiting the next day, thinking
that they were going to kill the other woman's son and eat
him. Now that story, to say the least,
is troubling. If I was going to give this message a title, I would entitle
it, God's Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility. And I hope you'll
see that as we consider this passage of scripture. Ben-Hadad
was the king of Syria. He's the same man that sent to
the king of Syria, Naaman, his top general. He was the king
of Syria. And I think that it's interesting
to notice, look in 2 Kings 5, verse 1, Now Naaman, the captain of the
host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and
honorable because that by him the Lord, 2 Kings 5.1, for that
by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. Now, who was responsible
for the victory of Syria over Israel? The Lord. He was responsible
for their victories. He was responsible for their
defeats. The Lord is in absolute control
of everything. And the reason Ben-Hadad had
besieged this city, Samaria, and remember what it means to
besiege, you would cut off all supply lines so you would starve
them to death so they'd give up. And that's what was going
on here. This famine was not coming from a lack of rain. As
a matter of fact, people had plenty of money. They were paying
exorbitant prices for dove's dung. That's how bad things had
become you would eat dove dung or an ass's head. That's all
there was left to eat. Now, I can't even imagine that,
but these commodities were all there was to eat. And that's
what this besieging had done. Verse 25, And there was a great
famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until an ass's
head was sold for four score pieces of silver, and the fourth
part of a calf, a calf of dove's dung." Somebody said that's about
a quarter of a cup for five pieces of silver. And as the king of
Israel, verse 26, was passing upon the wall, and this is Jeroam. He was a wicked man. He was the
son of Ahab and Jezebel. And he was just like his parents.
He did not leave the sins of Jeroboam. He was leading the
nation of Israel in idolatry. Through his influence and his
example, idolatry was complete in Israel. And God said when
that takes place, there will be a judgment that will take
place. As a matter of fact, let me read
it. You might want to turn with me here. Turn to Deuteronomy
28. This is God's judgment for idolatry,
verse 52, Deuteronomy 28, verse 52, and he shall besiege thee
in all thy gates until thy high and fenced walls come down wherein
thou trustest throughout all thy land And he shall besiege
thee in all thy gates, throughout all thy land, which the Lord
thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit
of thine own body, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters,
which the Lord thy God hath given thee in the siege, and in the
straightness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee. Now
the Lord says, this is what's gonna happen. When you turn away
from me, this is what's gonna happen. He tells him beforehand,
and here we have it taking place, this gruesome story. Verse 26,
and as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there
cried a woman unto him saying, help me, my lord, O king. And he said, if the lord doesn't
help thee, when shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or
out of the wine press? He's almost speaking sarcastically. We don't have anything in the
barn floor or the wine press. We're starving to death, all
of us are. If the Lord doesn't help you, what can I do for you? Somebody says, why does he even
mention the Lord if he's such an idolater? Well, he blended
worship. They would say Jehovah's name
and then do all kinds of idolatrous practices. It was the blending,
like what's going on today, the blending of things. And the king, verse 28, said
unto her, what aileth thee? And she answered, this woman.
said unto me, give thy son that we may eat him today and we'll
eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat
him. And I said unto her on the next
day, give thy son that we may eat him. And she hath hid her
son. I don't even know what to say
about that. That's so horrible. And it came to pass, verse 30,
that when the king heard these words of the woman, that he rent
his clothes. And I suppose you and I would
do the same thing, wouldn't we? If we were in that place, we
would rent our clothes, being so upset at what has taken place. And he passed by upon the wall,
and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon
his flesh. Verse 31, then he said, God do
so and more to me if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphath
shall stand on him this day. This is Elisha's fault. The reason we are suffering like
this is because of that man Elisha. And may the Lord do so and more
to me if his head remains upon his shoulders this day, I'm going
to go and cut off his head. Now, in reality, it was his fault
that this was taking place. It was his fault when he led
Israel into idolatry and they were all worshiping idols and
they were doing that which was evil in the Lord's sight and
he was leading on it. He could have looked in the Bible
and found out this is what takes place when you do this. This
is what's going to happen when you do this. He had the scripture
just the way you and I do. He was king of Israel. He could
have seen this, but he blames it on the Lord. Now, he refused to take personal
responsibility or personal accountability for that which he did. Isn't
that pretty much what Adam did in the garden? The woman that
you gave me, she gave me of the fruit. This would have never
taken place without this woman. that you gave me, the woman you
gave me, she gave me of the fruit and I did eat. It's not my fault. It's your fault. If you wouldn't
have given me this woman, this would have never taken place.
It's not my fault. It is your fault. I remember And we're going to
actually look at this. This is why it's on my mind this
morning in the service outside when Aaron made the golden calf
and Moses is confronting him about it. Why did you do this?
He said, well, we threw in the gold and out came this calf.
Out came this calf. I didn't do this, it's not my
fault, looking to lay the blame of personal responsibility somewhere
else. Why, men even blame their sin
on the sovereignty of God. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter 9. Verse 15, for he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion, so then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose,
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardens. Thou wilt say unto me, why does
he yet find fault for who has resisted his will? How can God
hold me responsible if he's the one who's hardened my heart?
That is not right. If he hardens me, and he's the
one who does it, how can he find fault with me for me doing what
I do because he hardened me? How can God hold me responsible? How can that be right? And I guarantee you, every one
of us have thought that before ourselves. How can that be right? With regard to our personal sin.
Let no man say, when I'm tempted, I'm tempted of God. Don't blame
God on this. God doesn't tempt any man. A
man's tempted when he's drawn away with his own lust, the scripture
says in James chapter one. You can read that for yourself. The fall. The fall. God ordained the fall. God purposed the fall. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. Not if you do, when you do. You shall surely die. I think of the cross. Everybody was doing exactly what
God's hand and counsel determined before to be done. When that
man lifted up the hammer to nail the nails in the hands and feet
of our Lord Jesus Christ, God determined for this to be done. Now, should we say, well, he
shouldn't be held responsible for it then? He didn't really
sin. Can't say that, can you? I think
of the passage of scripture in Acts chapter two, him being delivered
by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and with not guided hands that I've determined for you
to do, but with wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now, I might not be able to intellectually
grasp this. As a matter of fact, it's not
that I might not be able to, I don't. But I know this is so. God is
absolutely sovereign and men are completely responsible for
their actions. Let me repeat that. God is sovereign. That means he controls everything. And me and you are completely
responsible for what we do. And if we do it, it's all our
fault. My sin is all my fault. Now when Jerome sees this horrible
thing take place of this woman killing her son, throwing him
in boiling water and eating him, and then the other person hiding,
what does he do? This is Elisha's fault. And this
is the natural man's response. I want to speak the last few
minutes about this. It's not my fault. It's not my fault. I shouldn't be held accountable. Well, if my sin is not my fault,
I'm calling God a liar because he says it is. Amen. If my sin If it's not my fault,
really, I don't have any personal guilt. It's not my fault. If
it's not my fault, I do not have guilt before God. If my sin is not my fault, all
my confession of sin is insincere, isn't it? It's kind of like you
feel when you get an insincere apology. You know they don't
mean it. Well, if my sin is not all my fault, My confession of
sin is so insincere before God, he thinks nothing of it. If my
sin is not all my fault, I can't really sue for mercy. You see, the only way you ever
truly ask for mercy is if your sin is all your fault. And if it's not all your fault,
you're not truly going to ask for mercy. Now, this is a true
story. Read it in a Spurgeon sermon.
I guess that makes it true. But the king of France had someone
in his cabinet who he really thought a lot of. And he said,
I'm going to give you the privilege of showing mercy to anybody you
want to show mercy to. Doesn't matter what they've done.
If you want to show mercy, you can show mercy. And so he goes
into a boat with nothing but galley slaves, and they were
sentenced there. You see, they weren't there for
a job. They were there in prison. That's what they had to do. They
were galley slaves. And he comes in and looks at that bunch, and
he starts interviewing some. He says to one, why are you here? He said, well, I've been unjustly
charged. I'm not guilty. And he thought, well, this man
doesn't need mercy. He needs justice. And he went to another
one, and he said, why are you here? I am guilty of what I've
been accused of, but who wouldn't under my circumstances? I mean,
I was placed in circumstances where you couldn't do anything
else. And once again, the man thought to himself, well, he
doesn't need mercy, he needs justice. And he went to another
man and he said, are you guilty? He said, yes, I am, but it's
not really that bad. I don't deserve this. And he
said, once again, well, that man doesn't need mercy, he needs
justice. And then he came up to another
man. And he said, why are you here? He said, because I'm guilty. And I deserve worse. If anything,
this is mercy. I mean, that I've got this. I
deserve worse. And the man said, I'm going to
show you mercy. That's what you need, is mercy.
Set him free. What he needs. These other fellas
just needed justice. This fella needed mercy. Now,
understand with regard to mercy, Grace, God's reason for giving
grace is the Lord. He does so because he's gracious.
He doesn't look for a reason in you. But mercy has something
to do with misery. God is moved to pity where there's
a true need of mercy. So if your sin's not your fault,
God's not gonna pity you. He's not gonna be moved to show
you mercy. But when your sin is all your
fault, God is moved to bestow mercy. Now, when it's not my
fault, I feel like I'm entitled to something. You know God despises
that attitude of entitlement. Don't, may the Lord deliver me
and you from that. If it's not my fault, there's
never true godly sorrow overseeing, I'm not to blame. If it's not
my fault, when I say my sin is not my fault, I'm lying. And when my sin is not my fault,
it's impossible for me to look to Christ only. I've got something
else to hold on to. This is Elisha's fault. That's
where you got in trouble. My sin. is all my fault. God is absolutely sovereign. He's sovereign over everything.
You can't take that too far. Somebody says, you can overstate
that. No, you can't. No, you can't.
God is sovereign. That means his sovereign will
controls everything. And my sin, my personal sin,
I can't blame God's sovereignty. I can't like Jerome. He was the
problem. The reason all these horrible
things were happening was because of him. It was his fault. But
he blames Elisha, and ultimately he's blaming God, as we'll see.
Now let's go on reading. Verse 32. But Elisha sat in his
house. And the elder sat with him, and
the king sent a man from before him. He was going to behead him.
But ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, see
how this son of a murderer is sent to take away my head. You
know one of the things that impressed me so much about Elisha is he
never seems afraid. And I know why, too. You remember
when he said to his servant, open his eyes that they may see.
And he saw those chariots of fire around the mountain. Elisha
somehow, he always saw these, he wasn't afraid. Lord's in control. This man's in the Lord's hands.
I've got these chariots of fire, these angels, Lord's will's gonna
be done. I don't have anything to worry about. I wish you and
I would espouse that attitude at all times. God's God. There's
nothing to worry about. And Elisha sure wasn't worried,
was he? See how this son of a murderer
has sent him to take away mine head. Look, when the messenger
comes, shut the door, hold him fast at the door. Is it not the
sound of his master's feet behind him? Jerome's going to be right
behind him. And while he yet talked with him, behold, the
messenger came down on him. And he said, and I know this
is Jerome, behold, it's not just the messenger of Jerome, it's
Jerome. Behold, this evil is of the Lord. Now he's blaming who he's really
blaming, Jehovah. This evil is of the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord
any longer? And so it's why should I hope
in the Lord? Why should I hope in the Lord any longer? Look
what he's doing. This evil is of the Lord. This is a man who
had no love for Jehovah, only contempt, only blaming him for
everything that happens. And then in chapter 7, verse
1, this chapter division is actually kind of unfortunate. And remember,
chapter divisions are of men. I'm thankful for them. We'd never
find anything without them. So I'm thankful for chapters
and verses. What if I said, look somewhere
in Kings and see if you can find this? We need this. But this is a bad chapter division
because the story's going on. Look at Elisha's response. Then
Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord.
Tomorrow about this time. Now today, you got to pay five
shekels of silver for a half a cab of dove's dung. Can you
imagine that being, and I guess there must be some kind of nutritional
value to it, but they were eating that kind of stuff. And they
were, an ass's head, all the asses had already been eaten
and all that was left with the head of the ass. And this is
what you had to pay for. But he says, tomorrow about this
time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and
two measures of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. There's
going to be plenty tomorrow, all kinds of food. And so that
is what is going to take place tomorrow. Now we'll look at that
story, how that took place next week. So if you can read, read
2 Kings chapter 7 about the lepers. That's what we're going to concentrate
mainly on, the lepers and what they do and how they come back
with the news. But a miracle took place. The Lord caused all of the armies
of Samaria to leave. They were scared to death. They
thought that Israel had hired armies against them, they fled,
left all their gold, all their silver, all their food, all their
plenty, and Israel just came and took the spoil the next day,
and food was that cheap. What do I want to leave myself
and you with? God is utterly sovereign, and
I'm glad it's that way. And all my sin is all my fault. But you know what? That doesn't
discourage me. You know what? Lord have mercy on me, the sinner.