I'd like you to take your Bibles to the Old Testament. Can you believe that? It's been a while, right? Pastor told me a long time, be a New Testament preacher. Well, that's true, but I'm going to take you to 2 Kings chapter number 7 tonight. I've been dealing with you on this subject of evangelism. This will be my last message that I know about on this subject for a few weeks unless the Lord decides otherwise. And Second Kings chapter number seven there is a little phrase that I want to point out to you real quick as we kind of introduce ourselves to the message tonight. In verse 9, there's a phrase I want you to see. 2 Kings 7, verse 9. Notice this little phrase. And I'm going to take this phrase as my title tonight. About the second line in it says, This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. What a statement. This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. I want to give you a little bit of background to this passage because I believe it gives authority to what I want to say to you tonight. At this time in Israel's history, they're a divided nation. Solomon, because he had followed other gods, failed to keep God's covenant in his statutes. And the Lord said this to Solomon in 1 Kings 11. The Bible says, Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, And thou hast not kept my covenant, my statutes, which I have commanded thee. I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and I will give it to thy servant. God promised not to take the entire kingdom away from Solomon. He'd give him one tribe. And so what ended up happening was we have a divided kingdom, and it's made up, of course, the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom. The southern kingdom was Benjamin and Judah. The northern kingdom were the remaining 10 tribes. The capital city of Judah was Jerusalem and the capital city of Israel was, does anyone know? Samaria. Samaria was developed by the 10th king of Israel and his name was Omri. And so here we have the most, what once was the most powerful nation in the world is now divided and disorganized and defenseless against all its surrounding enemies. Now, three things, I believe, contributed to Israel's condition at this time. The first thing that I believe contributed to it were the increasing number of enemies that surrounded them. The Ammonites, and the Moabites, and the Edomites, and the Syrians, and the Philistines, and the Arabs, and the Assyrians. And God was not defending them like He once was. The second thing was the intrusion of Baal worship and also the God of Asherah And that led to religious apostasy in Israel And that occurred because Ahab who was the king of Israel before this time Secured diplomatic relations with Phoenicia and other neighboring people And anytime you have idol worship you have immorality and anytime you have immorality you have a curse on the people Thirdly Israel's power and wealth had been diminished because they had had continual civil war and Also Egyptian or the Egyptian government had lorded over them under Shishak in 2nd Chronicles chapter 12 Now they're in a terrible terrible condition Now I'd like you to hold your place right there in 2nd Kings 7. I'd like you to go to the book of Hosea The prophet Hosea in chapter number seven. And when you get to Hosea, chapter number seven, I want you to look, if you will, in verse number 13. And God, of course, is speaking through the prophet at this time in Israel's history, and he's speaking of Israel's condition. And God said in Hosea chapter seven, verse 13, woe unto them, for they have fled from me. Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me. Verse 14 says, They have not cried unto Me with their heart. Verse 15, the end of the verse says, They imagine mischief against Me. Verse 16 says, They were turned, but not to the Most High. And Hosea chapter 8, if you look at verse number 3, he continues on and he says, Israel hath cast off the thing that is good. Verse 4, it says, they have set up kings, but not by me. It goes on to say in verse 4, their silver and their gold have they made them idols. Verse 7, they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. If you go to verse number 11, the Bible says, Ephraim hath made many altars to sin. Verse 12 says, I have written to them the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. Doesn't that remind you when God's people hear the truth and they kind of go like this? That doesn't make any sense, right? Verse 14, for Israel hath forgotten his maker. It was a really difficult time. Israel was in an apostate condition Now if you flip back over to 2nd Kings and you look at chapter number 5 Which is of course just a few pages to the left of chapter 7 You'll find it. Elisha gives a testimony as to the condition of Israel at this time And you remember the story about how Naaman? came to Elijah because he had leprosy and he wanted to be healed and he told him to go dip himself in the river seven times, and of course, you know, Naaman was upset about that, and of course, he went to the Nile and dipped himself seven times, and he finally came out, and he was, of course, healed, and he wanted to give Elijah a gift, and Elijah said, no, thank you, and Naaman headed back home, and yet Gehazi, who was Elijah's servant, decided, I'd like to have that gift he was going to give Elijah, and so he followed behind him, and he said, you know, Elijah's changed his mind, right? And he took that gift, and in verse 25 of chapter five of 2 Kings, here is Elijah confronting Gehazi. But he, that's Gehazi, went and stood before his master, and Elijah said unto him, whence comest thou, Gehazi? Well, he said, thy servant went nowhere, nowhere, right? And he said unto him, went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Wow. And notice these next three words. Is it a time to receive money? Is it a time to receive garments? Is it a time to receive olive yards and vineyards and sheep and oxen and midservants and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow. Is it a time? In other words, it was a terrifically difficult time in Israel's history. He said, it's not time right now in the history of our nation to be receiving gifts like that. It's not time for that. And so he gives a testimony a little bit of this time that Israel was living in. Now, I want you to look, if you will, at 2 Kings 6 and listen to how Israel themselves responds to the difficult time that they were in. You see, Syria had come in during this time because Israel was not having God protect them like they normally would and Syria surrounded them You know oftentimes in those days if you wanted to capture a city that was fortified by walls You wouldn't try to climb over the city or break through the city walls or break through the city walls What you do is you'd block the exits and entrances and you'd shut off the food supply or water supply coming to the city and you'd starve them out and And so here is Syria, and they've surrounded Samaria, and there was no food. And in 2 Kings 6, 24, listen to what it says. The Bible says, and it came to pass after this, that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his hosts and went up and besieged Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until an ass's head was sold for 80 pieces of silver, for a donkey's skull, right? And the fourth part, of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver. They were starving to death. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help my lord, O king. And he said, If the Lord did not help thee, when shall I help thee? Out of the barnyard, or floor, or out of the winepress? He's saying, If God doesn't help us, what am I supposed to do? I have nothing in the winepresses, nothing in the barn floor. I have no food, nothing to drink. I can't help you, woman. And she says this, and the king said unto her, what aileth thee? And she said, well, 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 ate him, and I said unto her the next day, let's eat your son, and she wouldn't give him to me. Crazy. That's the condition. The apostate condition of this nation. Now the king is Jehoram. He's the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Bible tells us a little about him in 2 Kings 3. Let me just read it to you. The Bible says, Now Jehoram, the son of Ahab, began to reign over Israel and Samaria the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. And he reigned 12 years. And he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, but not like his father and like his mother. That's Ahab and Jezebel, right? For he put away the image of Baal that his father made. Nevertheless, he cleaved into the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. That means he abolished worship in Israel and set up idolatry. And he got rid of Baal, but not all the gods, right? He got rid of some, but not all, which made Israel to sin. He departed not therefrom. So here's this king, right? And he's an apostate king. And he's listening to this woman give this testimony, and finally he's had enough. I mean, they're starving, the nation's starving, he doesn't know what to do, and finally this woman comes and they turn to cannibalism. And verse 30 of 2 Kings 6 says, And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he ran his clothes, and he passed by upon the wall. And the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Then he said, God do so, and more also to me, if the head of Elijah, the son of Shaphat, shall stand on him this day. Now this is interesting. It's interesting because the fact is the reason the nation was in the condition they were is because of him They were having these problems because of his leadership and yet he wants to blame God and God's man for the problem I Mean how irrational can a person be? But how oftentimes we find people have problems in their lives and they want to strike out against the servant of God or against God. They want to blame the man of God. In fact, what they'll say is, I think he's been praying for me and that's what caused all this. I've had problems in my life before and I wanted to go to my mother and say, would you please stop praying? You're causing problems in my life, right? They really get angry because they have problems that have come into their lives when the problems are there because they have forsaken the Lord. I heard a man say this week, he said, America doesn't have an Obama problem, America has a God problem. That's true. Blame Obama all you want. The problem's us. We've forsaken the only true and living God. And we're in trouble, man. But that's just the part of the irrationality of people. He's blaming the prophet of God. God help me saying by tomorrow. I'm taking that man's head off his shoulders. I love this look at verse 32, but Elijah sat in his house and the elders some of his comrades and friends sat with him and the king sent a man from before him. But ere the messenger came to him, and he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer, that's Ahab, has sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door." What he's saying is when he walks in the door, pin him up against the wall. It's not the sound of his master's feet behind him. I like this. This is kind of like a mobster. And the prophet here is not a sissy. You walk in his house, he's going to pin you up against the wall, and he's going to look at you like this and say, what do you want, boy? I like that. Bible says in verse 33 and while he yet talked with him behold the messenger came down unto him and he said behold This evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer? So here what you have is you have This whole caravan of messengers that have come from Joram with a message from the king and they're saying this is what the king said I'm not gonna wait for God any longer. He's not gonna do anything. Anyway, we'll take matters in our own hands evidently Elijah told him listen, you better turn your heart toward the Lord and in their mind they had They're far from it Now I want you to see five things out of this passage tonight number one, I want you to see God's sympathy Look at verse number one Then Elijah said hear ye the word of the who? Lord this isn't Elijah's words. These are God's words Thus saith the who Lord Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. He's gonna say tomorrow there's gonna be so much food, it's not even worth anything. Be able to buy a loaf of bread for 10 cents, right? You know, it's in the most desperate situations that God comes through. Don't give up on trusting the Lord. It's not over till it's over. And I'll tell you this right now, I've got some situations in my own life where it feels really close to over. How about you? It's not over till it's over. Trust Him. I want you to note the precision and the confidence of the promise that comes from God. Tomorrow about this time, and he tells them how much is gonna come, or excuse me, he gives them a measurement and how much it's gonna be worth. I mean, he puts precision in this promise. Say, what does that matter? Because when he gives details, it's something for you to latch onto. In other words, God says, I'm going to take care of the problem, and I'm going to take care of it in a specific way so you know God's hand did this. There's going to be some specific things here. This miracle is going to be specific. There's not going to be any mistake here. And the promise comes when this king is right at his breaking point. And I'm going to tell you, here's one of the king's lords here. And he evidently has traveled with this caravan, and he speaks up when he hears Elijah gives his promise, and in verse two he says, then a Lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? See, here's the problem with the king. He's leaning on the wrong guy. He's leaning on a guy that runs by common sense and reasoning. I get so sick of that. I'd rather be a fool trusting God than go by common sense the rest of my life. I get so tired of hearing preachers talk about this is common sense and this makes sense. What about God? Listen, if I can solve my problems by reasoning and common sense, then I don't have my problems analyzed right. We need the Lord. He's saying there's no way. The only way God's going to be able to solve this problem is if the windows of heaven open. It's almost like he's mocking Israel's history. He's saying, yeah, I've heard those stories about the flood and the water coming out of the skies, and I've heard about manna and how God provided manna from heaven. And it's almost as if he's saying, those are fanatical stories, and if those happened in the past, they'll happen in the future. Yeah, right. Right? He's so cynical toward the Lord. Because in his own mind, he saw no way out. Now Elijah was just as ignorant as this nobleman was as to how God was gonna solve the problem. The difference is that Elijah kept his eyes fixed on the word of God. Notice Elijah's response in verse two, and he said, behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but you're not gonna eat it. you're not gonna touch one ounce of that food, right? You might look at it, you're gonna see God's work come to pass, but you're not gonna enjoy it. You see, God was continually working in the nation of Israel to show his power and might. He wanted to show his power and might. I heard such an interesting fact this week that I wanna preach on sometime. You know, Israel's supposed to take a Sabbath every seventh day and every what? Seventh year. Not one time in their history did they ever take a Sabbath on the seventh year, not one time. And in the seventh year, they were supposed to take a Sabbath year and supposed to study the word of God and let God meet their need. Think about this. So they had festivals multiple times a year. They had a Sabbath every seventh day, but then every seven years, they just took off work and supposed to enjoy God and enjoy his word and not worry about it all, and God would take care of them. And by the nations of the world watching this, they know that God was powerful enough to do it, but they wouldn't trust God. They never did it. Not one time did they rest that land in seventh year. And I think, boy, what a life that would have been. Every seven years, could you imagine just taking off work for a full year and having a good time around the word of God, not worried about your food? That'd be a great life, wouldn't it? Well, God provided a great life, they just didn't take it by faith. Now here they are, God wants to meet their need, and yet they haven't trusted Him, turned on Him. They're a mess. And He wants to show His power, and this man mocks God's Word, and ultimately it's gonna cost him his life. So we see God's sympathy. He's gonna love these people and meet their need. But I want you to see, secondly, God's subjects. Look at verse number three. And there were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? I love that statement. If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we're gonna die also. Now therefore come, let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we'll live. If they kill us, we shall die. I mean, here's these lepers, these poor, Diseased beings who are forced to live outside the city gates are living in shanties They're living their lives apart from everybody else in the city and they're fed from day to day With whatever food they pass over the wall if there's any food to pass over the wall Their bodies are literally rotting away and loathsomeness They're like for living skeletons who barely have any flesh on their bodies and the flesh they do have is is absolutely foul and hideous or marked up with leprosy. They're outcasts, they're offcast, they've been thrust outside the gates of Israel. Their own friends and family were obligated to separate from them and they're wretched and they're undesirable human beings and yet God chooses to use them. It's a wonderful thing that those who are the most conscious of their sin and despised of men and least likely to be favored on this earth are so often the ones God saves. Grace is found in the most unlikely of places. And these were the kind of people that would never dare join themselves with God's people. These are lepers who are not allowed inside the city walls and how often does God use the ones that mankind rejects, right? You think about the Word of God and how full of problem-ridden people God's Word is. If you were to take out of Scripture all the stories that have to do with the poor and afflicted men and women, you'd have a very small book. Remove from the book of Psalms all those that are sorrowful, and all the promises for the distressed, and all the passages written to those that are full of grief. Remove the story of Joseph and his slavery in Egypt. Remove the story of Moses and 40 years in the wilderness. Take out the book of Job. Take out all the stories of Israel's evil kings. Take out Eli's feeble rule in Israel. Take out Jeremiah's writings, who is called the prophet of sorrow. Take Jonah's story out, cast into the sea. Take out the stories of the widows with no food and the stories of the lepers. In the New Testament, take out the stories of Christ living among fishermen and peasants, and the poor that were His disciples, and those that were chosen that were weak, that were chosen to confound the wise. Take out the stories of David's wanderings, right? I mean, the Bible's full of people that were full of problems. And here are these lepers and the famine is sorest with them. I mean, they would have barely had food during the good days passed over the wall, but now people aren't going to give them food. I mean, they're going to die anyway. Why would we waste any kind of sustenance on them? And probably the Samaritans thought and even said that it'd be better if they would die. It would save them out of their problem. I mean, these men are totally bankrupt. And I don't know what it is about us human beings, right? that it's when we are totally bankrupt that we're ready to seek God's help and blessing and fullness. It's just human nature. That's why we pray, God, bring need into their lives. God, bring them to the end of themselves. It's like the prodigal son. It wasn't until everything was gone that he had the thought, you know, what about my dad, right? But here they are. Utterly bankrupt. And because they're totally bankrupt, they have no reason not to go. They couldn't find a reason to just sit there. And the only decision that they really had the freedom to make was the freedom to go to the Syrians. They couldn't say, well, we're sitting here because the kings are making us sit there. The king would have rather them gone as far away as they could possibly go. Go anywhere you want, just not here. So there's no reason for them to stay idle. There's no reason for us or for them to remain where they were. They had no other options. If they went into town, they were gonna die. If they remained where they were, they were gonna die. The only road that was open to them was the road to Syria. And I'm gonna tell you this, I really love when God gives me one road. And oftentimes I pray, God, make it plain, because I'm not very smart. And because I'm not very smart, if you'll make it really plain, God, I'll go whatever direction you want me to go. Just make it simple. Well, their direction was simple. This way or die, right? Notice they didn't try to get theoretical here. Many times in our lives as believers in Christ, everything's gotta be science, right? These men had no time to speculate sit around a theorize or think about what the best thing to do is they just said we're gonna die if we don't do something they just went So we see God's sympathy God's reaching out to his people. We see God's subjects. He's using these Lepers to help them but notice God's strength look at verse 5 and They rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria behold There was no man there. Now you gotta understand, they left the city gates, and they began to head towards Syria, and yet there was nobody there to attack them. The Syrians had been guarding Samaria. There was no way in and no way out. The entrances and exits were guarded, but they were gone, and they continued to walk, waiting for a confrontation, and the confrontation never comes. And they keep heading to the Syrian camp, and they're looking to be restricted, and they're never restricted, never confronted, never see any soldiers, never run into anyone. And when they arrive at the Syrian camp, to the backside of the camp, hoping that the Syrians, when they get there, won't know they came from Samaria, they come to the backside of the camp, and everyone's gone. All the leaders, all the soldiers are gone. No armies threatening their city. Here's Samaria, literally sitting on a hill in the twilight, totally at peace, and they don't know it. Look at verse six. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a great 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 they fled for their lives. These lepers are on their way and while they're on their way God sent a loud noise now We don't know if the noise was audible where everyone could hear it or if it was just in the Syrians head We don't know but it sounded like chariots and horses and people coming by the millions right into the Syrian camp They're so afraid they immediately evacuated. I mean they left everything in the middle of the night Everything they owned everything possessed all their food all their animals all their clothes. They took their children They took everything they were gone. It was over. They're out of there There was nobody around when these lepers got into this town. The Lord literally defeated the Syrian army without anyone's help at all. And they'd run for their lives, and they'd fled because of this noise, and they were literally fighting to see who could get to the other side of the Jordan the fastest. And here's Israel, and they don't have a single enemy on the west side of the Jordan to attack her, and yet she didn't know that the Lord had given her the victory. Had they known of the victory, they'd have been dancing in the streets. Had they known of the victory, their little boys and girls wouldn't be starving to death. And God had provided plenty of food for them. Plenty of clothes. I mean, literally, a stone's throw away, there was more fine flour and barley than the whole nation could have eaten at that time. And yet they're starving in the midst of plenty. What a strange thing, right? A city besieged and not besieged. A city surrounded by enemies as they thought and yet there wasn't an enemy anywhere around. Starving near a feast. That's what unbelief does. Let me ask you this question. How many people today are starving to death spiritually? They're living in bondage. because they don't know that God has provided a way of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. They're perishing for no reason at all. And here are these four lepers in the middle of the night, headed toward the far rear of the Syrian camp, and the Bible says in verse eight, and when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and they did eat, and they did drink, and they carried then silver and gold and raiment, and they went and hid it and came again. It's like my dog when I give her a, you know, like a steak bone. She runs to the backyard and hides it and then comes back and looks at me for another one, right? Getting all they can as fast as they can, right? And they carried this also and went and hit it again. I mean, these lepers hit a gold mine. They walk into this place starving to death and there's nobody around and they have complete access. I mean, I can just see them right now. They have like four or five robes and crowns and all that kind of stuff on them. And they got like a chicken leg over here and a glass of wine over here and they're celebrating and dancing around, bearing in the ground, right? My dad owned a business in Pompano Beach. My brother and I grew up right on Powerline Road. It was a rough area. We had no neighbors, no friends or anything like that. It was really dangerous when I think about what my dad let us do. We wandered all through those warehouses all nights, you know, hours of the night and through the weekends. He never asked us where we were. It's a miracle we're alive. And we had this one dumpster we used to kick a soccer ball against. And we would go out there and we'd, you know, fight and play soccer and have a good time. We kicked the ball into this dumpster one day and then argued as to who was going to go in to get it out because we usually take turns, draw straws, that kind of thing. I know what some of you mothers are thinking. Why would any parent let their kid climb in a dumpster? Well, it was great fun for us. We loved it, right? So he climbed in this dumpster, and he pokes his head out the top, and he says, you are not going to believe what I just found in here. And he slid the side of the dumpster open where you normally throw the trash in. And we looked in, and it was filled with jewelry, the whole thing, full of jewelry, necklaces and rings and bracelets. I mean, the whole thing from top to bottom was full of jewelry. And we said, we're rich! We just went crazy, right? And what had happened was there was this like electroplated jewelry store that went out of business that just took all their product and just threw it in the trash. So we are carrying this stuff out. My parents have actually gone somewhere for a few minutes. And we load boxes of this jewelry up, and we take it back to our bedroom, shut the door, lock it, right? And we're hanging necklaces. We got rings. We got rings on each hand like this, and necklaces, and earrings clipped on our ears, and all this stuff, right? My dad comes home and opens the door, and imagine what he thought, right? My boys have thrown a rock through a window and robbed some store around here, and we're in major trouble, right? And he said, where did you get those? We're not going to believe that. It's a dumpster over here. We couldn't believe. We had such a great time with that. It was like hitting a gold mine. And it was. We were thrilled. We were selling it for $1 at the business. You want $1, I'll give you a necklace. We had like $5. We were rich. These guys went into this little town, this little camp, if you will, and they hit a gold mine. And all of a sudden, the thought hits them. We have a whole city starving to death. Yeah, but think about the way they treated us. It doesn't matter, because they watched children being buried and heard the stories of mothers eating their own kids. And they said, it doesn't matter how bad it's been for us. There's no way we can eat this and not tell somebody, which leads us to point number three, God's spokesman. They said one to another, we do not well. And here's the phrase. 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. You see, their silence would have been absolutely inhumane. I mean, they find They find this camp, and it's absolutely incredible, and they knew it would be morally wrong to hide it to themselves. There's people back in Samaria, they're dying, they're starving to death, and here they are, there's enough provision for the whole town to eat. I mean, everything's dying, right? Animals are dying, people are dying. And I'll tell you this, as believers in Christ, we're so privileged. How is it that God chose me to be born in the family that I was born in? To go to a Christian school and a church all my life and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ? To literally feast off the truth of the Word of God? Right? I mean, to just sit and get fat on the fellowship of God's people and on the Word of God and on the wonderful hope of knowing that my future's secure and I'll spend eternity with God? We have all the wealth of heaven at our disposal and all the provision of salvation, and we're feasting like kings, and there's people all around us literally starving to death spiritually, and we have a moral obligation to tell them? I mean, it's morally wrong to let people die and go to hell when we know the way of salvation. It's wrong. It's wrong for me. It's wrong for you. And you can't think, if you think about the confrontation of telling them about the Lord, that's the wrong thought. You have to think about the confrontation when your eyes go across that sea or river the Bible talks about, and your eyes catch those when they're getting ready to get cast into eternity, and they're looking at you like, why didn't you say something? Why weren't you willing to be a little bit confrontational for the sake of telling me what the truth is? Right? That's the thing we need to imagine in our minds. And here they were, they were morally obligated. And their silence would have been contrary to God's divine purpose for leading them there. That wasn't just by chance that they went there. God led them there. And God led them there, why? Why did God lead them there? God didn't lead them there so they could just feast. God led them there so they could go back and tell everyone else that God's provided. So it was according to God's divine purpose. Why did God save you and why did God save me? Not just so we could enjoy it ourselves. He did it so we could tell others. That's the purpose of it. It's like when He cursed the barren fig tree, He walked by that fig tree, and it was like a picture of Israel. And here's a fig tree that doesn't bear figs. It's just sitting there existing, but it's bearing no fruit, and it's not existing for the purpose God gave it, and so God did what? God said, listen, you might as well just wither up and die. There is no purpose to your existence. And it's like Israel, there they were, supposed to tell others about what God had done for them. They had no thought of what God had done for them. That's why when he walked over that hill and he saw Jerusalem on their day of visitation, he wept. Because they missed it. Right? And their silence was even dangerous for them, because in verse eight it says, if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. They knew they had an obligation to God to go back and tell. They knew it. And their obedience was immediate. Notice he says, this day is a day of good tidings. Had they waited 24 hours, how many people would have died? Many. And here we are, we're God's spokesmen. We have a message that needs to be heard right now. And we need to be urgent about that message because this is a day of good tidings. This is, we cannot hold our peace. We have to say something. It's good news, it's glad tidings, it's today. Lastly, I want you to see God's supply. Look at verse number nine. So they came and called to the porter of the city. And they told him saying, we came to the camp of the Syrians. 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." So here comes the four lepers back to the city gate, and they're still not able to enter the city gate, and they told the good news to the porter or the gatekeeper, and they told them of the city and of the news, and it quickly made it to the king. And the Bible says here in verse number 12, and the king arose in the night, He said unto his servants. I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us They know that we'd be hungry therefore they 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 the Bible says and they're gonna get into the city and one of us one of the servants answered said and Said let me take I pray thee five of the horses that remain which are left in the city Behold they are All the multitude of Israel that are left in it behold I say they are even as all the multitude of Israel that are consumed and let us send and see They took therefore two chariot horses and the king sent after the host of the Syrian saying go and see the king says but rather Just rush off here. Let's just thank for a couple hours here and Let's just think about what's going to take place and he thinks that he gets up in the middle of the night and he says I know this is a trap and I I just want to tell you don't always trust your instincts in the middle of the night and I can't tell you how many times I had this thought in the middle of the night that had to come from God, because that's what God does. He speaks in the night, and He does. But so do your emotions, because it's dark and scary, right? And so does the devil. So after you get up in the morning and the sun comes through your blinds, actually sit down and pray and just kind of evaluate whether that thought was wild or whether it was real. Don't act on it immediately in the morning when you wake up, right? He had this thought, and he says, we can't do this. And finally, someone with some sense says, listen, can I just take a few horses that are left? I think there's like two left. The rest of them are dead. I'd take a few guys and go down there and check it out. I mean, I know it's not a good idea, but just perchance, I'll lay my life on the line. Can we just try it? And they went after them unto Jordan, and lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels which the Syrian had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king, and the people went out and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour were sold for a shekel, two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord." That's a good example of supply and demand right there. So who do you think ended up with the responsibility of selling that food at the gate of the city? What do you think the price of the food was set at and what do you think happened to that? Sarcastic unbelieving servant and who do you think was the one person who was not able to eat that food? Look at verse 17 and the king appointed the lord On whose hand he leaned To have the charge of the gate and the people trod upon him in the gate and he died as the man of god had said who spake when the king came down to him, and it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, two measures of barley for a shekel and a measure of fine flour for a shekel shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. And the Lord answered the man of God and said, now behold, if the Lord should make windows of heaven, how might such a thing be? You know, it's really interesting that God repeats this whole thing. You know, have you ever wanted to repeat back to someone something they said that was really negative to you and ended up being wrong, and you wanted to take it back? So you remember saying that. Any of you do that to your spouse? Remember five years ago when you said this? I wrote it down. No, we don't do things like that. We forgive each other. And he said, behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat of it. And so it fell out unto him. But the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died. You know, moral of the story is this. People need the Lord. And we're all exactly the same. We all have fears and insecurities and all that. But don't forget, there are living, breathing human beings that have an eternal soul that will live somewhere forever. And this is a day of good tidings. How dare we hold our peace. Heavenly Father, I thank you.