Let's open up our Bibles tonight. We're gonna do a Bible study in 2 Kings, and we're gonna be in 2 Kings chapter six. So if you'll turn in your Bibles there. When we study these books like we do in the Old Testament, New Testament, when we're studying these books, one of the things that we see as a theme in most of these books, and looking at 1 Kings and 2 Kings, sort of the bigger picture is that we see evidenced is the grace and the mercy and the patience of God. And we see God's great love displayed visibly in his desire to see the nation of Israel live for Him, serve Him, and most cases come back to Him. And so He's worked and spoken through His prophets. In 1 Kings we saw Elijah was the main prophet in 1 Kings, and now in 2 Kings it's been Elisha. And We see the grace of God in how God deals with the nation of Israel, and grace simply means, the simplest term I've ever heard is undeserved favor. Now I like that definition, and here's a little bit extended one. Grace means the free, unmerited, unexpected, unearned love of God, with all its benefits, delights, and comforts, which flow from it. It means that while we were sinners and enemies, we have been treated as sons and heirs. Another definition is grace is the sovereign favor to the ill deserving. So we're gonna partake of communion tonight. And to me, communion is one of the stellar examples of the grace of God. Jesus died on the cross while we were yet sinners. He died for us. He didn't need to, I mean, we didn't deserve it, but He did it, even while we were yet sinners. That's the grace and the mercy of God and the love of God displayed. So, as we look at this book tonight, this whole book really is a picture of the grace of God in dealing with the stubborn, stiff-necked people of Israel. I don't know if you know of any stubborn, stiff-necked people. If you don't know any, I would encourage you to wake up tomorrow morning and look in the mirror, and you'll probably see one. Now when God was getting ready to send the nation of Israel into the land after the 40 years of wandering through the desert he was going to give them the land and he tells in the book of Joshua he's telling Joshua to get ready to go into the land and take possession of the land and as he was getting ready to send them into the land he gave them some promises or some choices that needed to be made in their lives, or some warnings. They were promises of blessings if they would obey God, and they were warnings of bitter consequences if they disobeyed God. For example, God promised to bless them as they came into the land with victory over their enemies. In the book of Joshua, chapter three, verse 10, it says this, this is how you will know that the living God is among you. that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Gergashites, the Amorites, the Jebusites. And so them trusting and obeying God equaled blessings. And so as God said that he would do, he did. He gave Israel victory after victory, miraculously intervening on Israel's behalf, giving them the land as an inheritance. They were conquering people and nations that were greater than them. God was with them, that's why. But we've also seen, and this evening we will see, the bitter consequences of disobedience or of sin, because God also forewarned them that if they turned their backs on God, if they decided to follow other gods, then what would happen to them is that God would remove His blessings from them. And so the nation of Israel in this time frame, in kings, had for the most part, especially the northern kingdom of Israel, had turned away from the Lord. They were living, serving false dead gods, the gods of the nations around them. And they did exactly what God said not to do. And as God warned from the very beginning, that they would reap the consequences of that sinful action or those actions and choices, and the word of God in the negative sense would be applied to them. And so we learn that there's a spiritual law, Old Testament, New Testament, the spiritual law of sowing and reaping, and that we will reap what we sow. And so what the children of Israel were reaping at this point is the consequences of their sin. And sin always has consequences that are unpleasant and bitter. If we do not repent of those sins and turn back to the Lord, the consequences of sin to me are never worth it. So they're bitter and they're painful. Someone, you know, talks about, someone I remember talking about the pleasures of sin. And you know, there is admittedly short term in many sins, there's a short term pleasure or a benefit in getting involved in sin. But the consequences of sin, the long term consequences of sin are not worth the short term benefit. because of a short-term benefit or pleasure of sin, sometimes a lifetime of consequences might be reaped, or even worse than that, an eternal lifetime of consequences. And so God warns, And God blesses and he tells the Israelites, you have to make a wise choice. And so I'll encourage you on your own. We don't have time because we're going to partake of communion, but I'll encourage you on your own. If you want to see the blessings and the curses that were given to the nation of Israel to follow, read Leviticus chapter 26 verses 1 through 29 or you can also read Deuteronomy chapter 28 on your own later. Now this evening's story has the promise in the negative sense of God's promises or his warning coming true. As Israel, because of her sin, begins to more and more reap the bitter consequences of turning their backs on God. Okay, so we're gonna pick it up. We left off the last time we were together in chapter six, and we're gonna begin tonight in verse 24. So let's go ahead and start reading there. It says, and it happened after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria. And indeed, they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and one fourth of a cab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. Then, as the King of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, Help my Lord, O King! And he said, If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor? Or from the wine press? Then the king said to her, what is troubling you? And she answered, this woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, give your son that we may eat him, but she has hidden her son. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes, and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body. Then he said, God do so to me, and more so, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on him today. But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger coming down to him. And then the king said, surely this calamity is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? We'll stop there now for a little while and talk about what's going on. Now, our setting is, and we left off last time with Elisha, Elisha single-handedly capturing a portion of the Syrian army as the king of Syria had sent them to find Elisha and take him prisoner. And remember, the story backfired on the king. and the army ended up being blinded temporarily and them captured by Elisha leading them to the king of Israel. Now the king of Israel didn't kill the army, but he fed them and sent them back. And verse 23 says, notice looking back at verse 23, it says, then he prepared a great feast for them. And after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. But what we see as we start tonight's study, this peace was only temporary, it was short-lived. Because here in verse 24, things change again. And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, gathered all his army and went up and besieged Samaria. Now Ben-Hadad here, decides once again to go to war against Israel, the Northern Kingdom. He besieges Samaria. Samaria is the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Now, the way they often fought back then is when they decided to go against another, people group or attack another city or whatever they would go usually to that city and the cities most of them were walled cities they were walled in order to protect them from the attacks of their enemies now in this case it was samaria it was the capital city like i said of the northern kingdom And the enemy, what they would do is they would come and they would surround the city completely. They would cut off all supplies and nothing or no one could come in or go out. And so what they would do, eventually the people inside would run out of food and they would begin to starve. And so now, the nation or the the northern kingdom of israel or samaria is experiencing begins to experience because of being besieged they begin to experience a famine they're running out of food and sadly as god had had forewarned in his word about calamities coming This calamity came as a direct result of their own sinfulness, and it was a self-induced or self-inflicted calamity. God had removed his blessing of protection over them. Now there's a simple lesson here for us tonight. And I think it's simple to think this way as Christians even, because we also were called to obedience. And if God calls us to obedience, to live for him, and then we decide not to do what God has called us to do, I don't believe that we can continue to think that, well, God's just gonna keep blessing my life as I disobey him. And so that's what was going on with the kings here, or the king here, or the Northern Kingdom. And so God's blessing and protection had been removed, and now they're reaping the bitter consequences of their bad choices. Notice how horrible the conditions within the city became. A terrible famine develops. They begin to starve. There's a food shortage. Look at verse 25 as we keep picking this apart a little bit. Look at verse 25. And there was a great famine. Not a famine, just a famine, a normal everyday famine, but a great famine in Samaria. And indeed, they sieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and one-fourth of a cab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver. How many of you in here read the King James Version? This is the New King James. Any old King Jamesers in here? Anybody? okay oh one all right i think the old king james it doesn't use this it says an ass's head sold for uh i don't know why i wanted to say that but anyway just it's sold for five piece for for uh how many pieces of silver a bunch it became a donkey's head became super duper expensive. Now, an ass's head or a donkey's head, to me doesn't sound very appetizing or appealing to eat. In fact, it was an unclean animal for the nation of Israel. The Jews were not supposed to be eating unclean animals. But here's the thing, when you're starving to death, and they started starving to death, they started eating everything. Now, if you were invited to my house for lunch, let's say I invited you tomorrow and I said, hey, why don't you come over for lunch? And then you said, well, hey, well, what's for lunch tomorrow? And I said an ass's head. You know, Adia's going to make it, she's going to make asshead stew, and you're going to love it. You know, you'd probably say, I think I'll take a rain check on that, right? Because, you know, it doesn't sound appealing to me, but the circumstances had become so desperate that this is where they are at. They were literally dying of starvation. Plus, we're told that a quarter of a cab of dove droppings was selling for five shekels of silver. Now, literally, were they eating dove droppings? That sounds even worse than an ass's head, but the cost of them was about... Now, what's interesting, through some calculations that I didn't do, that an ass's head was costing around $600. Imagine going to Walmart and you see a donkey's head there. I won't say the bad word anymore. You see the donkey's head there and it's 600 bucks, right? And you're like, what? I mean, you're like, who's in power in this nation? You'd be asking yourself. Biden, Biden did it. Everyone be believing that Biden, right? Well, anyway, so this is what was going on. And so inflation was crazy. for this half pint of, we don't know if it was literal, but dove droppings was 38 bucks for a half pint. So the famine had gone nuts within Samaria, and some scholars actually believe this is just another word, dove droppings were seeds that looked like dove droppings, I hope that's what it was, but you know. It sounds a little bit more appetizing that way. But during, you know, it's interesting because we have prophecy today that we still could see in our lifetime. And if we were to be wrong on the pre-tribulation rapture, which I don't think we are, but if we were, during the seven-year tribulation, there is gonna be a worldwide famine. And it's gonna be way worse than this. And so, the whole earth is gonna be experiencing a worldwide famine. Revelation chapter six tells us that there will be such a famine that a quart of wheat will sell for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and that multitudes will die in the world because of the famine. And so famines are horrible when you have no food to eat. Now as our story unfolds, we can see The conditions, the atrocities, they begin to multiply as we see people are so desperate. to keep from starving to death, we see this really sad story that comes to the surface in verse 26. Then as the king of Israel passed by on the wall, a woman cried out to him saying, help my Lord, O king. And he said, if the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor, from the wine press? There was no food anywhere. He said, where am I gonna get help? If God doesn't help us, we're all sunk. Then the king said to her, what is troubling you? And she answered, this woman said to me, give your son that we may eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, give your son that we may eat him. But she has hidden her son. Now this part of the story, I mean, I don't know about you guys, I've, thank God, I've never had to be starving to death at any point in my life, but it just seems almost beyond comprehension that you would actually eat your own child, right? This is how bad it had become. And so as the king's out strolling on the wall, this woman says, help me, and he's like, oh, what do you want me to do? And then she tells him this horrible thing that had gone on. And she says, I'm starving, we ate my son yesterday, and now she's supposed to give us her son so we can eat, and now she's hiding him. She's basically saying, I wanna eat her son, is what she was saying. Now, when I listen to that statement, and the way it hits the king, hopefully it hits all of us as well. I mean, just cut to the heart with pain, right? As a parent, as a grandparent, I can't imagine that. I can't even begin to imagine something like this happening. You talk about horrible, where a mother would actually give up her own child and killed her child and then eat her child and then make a deal with her neighbor to do the same thing with her son the next day. So this is cannibalism. It's a horrible thing. And so how desperate were they literally starving to death at this point. And it also shows something about human nature, right? When you think about killing a child and eating a child or just killing a child in general, it really shows you the depravity of humans and the Israelites had become so hardened and depraved that human life was no longer regarded as sacred. killing a child in order to eat the child. And you know society is messed up when they come to a place where killing a child is no big deal and how sad it is that that's where we are in the United States. We're not eating the children but 65 million Infants, beautiful little babies have been murdered by abortion. And the majority of them have been done to satisfy the flesh or out of selfishness, not out of necessity, but mostly out of convenience. And now baby body parts are being sold. And there's still 700,000 to a million babies a year in the United States being torn from their mother's womb and discarded as mere trash or else being sold their body parts for experimentation. And so it's a sad, sad thing when a culture stoops to that level of evil. Now, when the king hears what's been going on in the city, again, he's in anguish when he hears it. He's disgusted, he's grieved, he's angered. And I think if we were in his shoes, we would feel the same way. Look at verse 30 and verse 31. Now remember, this is a pagan king, he's not even serving God. And so, but it still rips his heart out. And look at verse 30. It says, now it happened when the king heard the words of the woman that he tore his clothes, and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body. Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat, remains on him today. He tears his royal robes, and that was a sign of extreme grief, anguish, sorrow, or anger. But then after he tears his robes, underneath he has on sackcloth. Sackcloth was made of goat's hair. It was a very rough, itchy, pokey kind of thing to wear. And they usually wore it because it was a symbol of repentance or humility or sorrow. And so even though this king was not a godly king, but he's an ungodly king, he's being brought to a place of humility, a place of brokenness. And God is getting his attention. This king's pride is being broken by this besieging of his city and the starvation of his people. And God, I believe, is trying to get his attention through this adversity. And you know, sometimes God does that. I have seen over and over, often because people are stubborn and stiff-necked and full of pride, and they refuse to listen to God the easy way. Therefore, they have to be dealt with in a hard way in order to get their attention, in order to get them to change or to wake up or be brought to repentance. And a lot of people come to the Lord the hard way. I remember that's how I came to Jesus. I came to Jesus the hard way. My life was in shambles and my pain was all self-inflicted pain. And I had no other place to look when I was broken but up. And I remember calling out to the Lord, God have mercy on me. God help me, Lord, I'm sick of my life. Please pick up these broken pieces and put me back together. But notice what this king does. He doesn't do that. What he does instead is he gets angry at Elisha and at God, or Elisha's God. Elisha is God's messenger. And I've seen this happen so often. People bring upon themselves calamity. They have sowed, and now they're reaping what they've sowed. Then, when it starts to get really painful and really awful, what do they do? They turn around and they get angry at God, and they blame God for what is in reality their own doing, their own fault, their own stupidity. So instead of taking personal responsibility, they blame shift, and it seems easier to blame God for their own problems, and more often than not, the problems were created by them. But what do they do? They point the finger at God. And I think it's ironic so often because first of all, they're not even living for God. They're not serving God. They never give God credit for any good thing that he does for them. But the second something goes bad, oh God, this is all your fault. Why are you letting this happen to me? You heard people do that? But here's a little newsflash. Listen up, if you haven't given your life to Jesus, you're pretty much on your own. And most of the pain and the heartache of the unbeliever is brought upon them by their own bad decision-making. and their own rebellion against God. They've made their bed, and now they're sleeping in it, and this is what's going on with him. But he gets mad at God, and he says, God, do so to me, and more also if the head of Elisha, the son of Shabbat, remains on him today. So what does he wanna do? He's mad at God, and he's mad at God's messenger, Elisha, so he decides, I'm gonna chop Elisha's head off. Instead of looking in the mirror and going, man, my own wickedness and sin and us rebelling against God has brought this on us, we've turned our backs on God, we've turned to idols, but instead he gets mad at God, blames God, and starts kicking against the goads and wants to kill Elisha. Now Elisha and God had already, on several occasions, bailed them out. And he seems like he's bending, but he's not broken yet. And the messenger of God is the one that's about to experience his wrath, or he wants to at least. So look at verse 32. But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him. But before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold him fast at the door is not the sound of his master's feet behind him. So Elisha's there. And then the Lord speaks to him and tells him, look, they're coming to kill you. The king's sending someone to take your head off. And I like what Elisha's doing here. He's hanging out with the elders, probably some of the remnant of the godly in Israel. He's sitting there with them, and then the Holy Spirit warns him, God speaks to him. This could be called a word of knowledge, but Elisha, He realizes what's going on and he tells the elders, listen, when this son, and he calls him, interesting, he says, do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take my head? What does he mean? Well, his grandpa was Ahab. So he's like, now he's coming to kill me. The son of a murderer. He's from Ahab's line. And who's Satan? Satan is a murderer. He's been a murderer from the beginning. Now, I don't know about you guys, but Elisha, like most of us, apparently, he likes his head. Because notice, he says when he shows up, and he wants to take my head, you guys hold the door. And don't let him in, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door, he tells them. Now, Elisha went into like a self-preservation mode, which I think most of us would have done the same thing had we been in his shoes, right? I don't know about you guys, but I like my head. I need it. I try to use it every day. I don't want it to be lopped off by someone. And so, you know, what's interesting too is we talk about the rapture of the church and then what's gonna happen in the tribulation period. There's gonna be believers during the tribulation period who put their faith in Christ and will not take the mark of the beast. And if they don't take the mark of the beast, guess what's gonna happen? Their heads are gonna get lopped off. So I don't know about you guys, but I'm doing what it says in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 21. Pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. So I'm praying that we don't have to go through all that, but imagine having your head lopped off. And so Elisha, he tells the elders, listen, don't let him in, shut the door, hold him fast at the door. And he says, because the king's coming right behind him. And then notice in verse 33, it says, and while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, just like the Lord had spoken to him. The messenger shows up. There was the messenger coming down to him. And then the king said, surety, this calamity is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? the king gets so angry at the circumstances that are happening in Samaria, he decides to take matters into his own hands and he says, you know what, since this is God's fault and Elisha is God's spokesman, you're gonna be the scapegoat and you're gonna die, why should I wait for the Lord to do something any longer? And perhaps Elisha, we don't know, but he says, why should I wait on the Lord? Maybe Elisha told him, you know what, just wait upon the Lord. And I can tell you this, most of us do not like to hear wait on the Lord, especially when we're in the midst of some trial or some difficulty or some hardship or some adversity and we want relief, we want help right now or 10 minutes ago. And then someone comes along and says, oh brother, don't worry about it, just wait on the Lord. And you're like, would you shut up? I mean, you just get mad, right? So I think he's mad at this point, and he's thinking to himself, I just want to do something, and the only thing I can think of to do is chop off Elisha's head. Maybe he thought, I'll feel better if I do that at least. because I'm tired of waiting on the Lord, because nothing's happening. So out of frustration, he wants to take Elisha's head. We have to be careful when we get frustrated, when we get angry, because we will do stupid things, and we have to really ask the Lord to help us. There's a person sitting in here in this room that I was very proud of recently, who went through a trial from one of his neighbors who shot him. And he was tempted to take retaliation, but he didn't do it, and I praise the Lord. But you know what? I would have been tempted to do the same thing. When someone does something to you and you want to take care of business right then, instead of saying, wait a minute, the Lord says, do not take revenge, leave room for God's wrath. It is mine to avenge, I will repay. I don't know how many times the Lord has shown me that over the years. The Lord says, I will handle your problem. you don't need to handle your problem. And so anyway he decides he's going to handle the problem on his own and chop off Elisha's head. Now once again God in his grace, God in his mercy miraculously intervenes and Elisha is given a word from God to what's about to happen and as I look at this I'm amazed at this because he's giving him even though this king is a total backslidden idol worshiper and all this bad stuff has come upon the nation the northern kingdom because of their rebellion against God yet we see once again God's amazing grace his amazing mercy displayed toward the nation of Israel were reaping hard and God in His grace offers to them mercy. Look at what happens in verse one. Then Elisha said, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, tomorrow Remember who's he saying this to? To the messenger that had come and the king was coming right behind him. He's gonna chop Elisha's head off. Then the Lord speaks through Elisha. Hear the word of the Lord, thus says the Lord. Tomorrow about this time, a sea of fine flowers shall be sold for a shekel and two seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, look, if the Lord would make windows of heaven, I mean, would, yeah, make windows in heaven, could this thing be? And he said, in fact, you shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it. So Elisha says, tomorrow there's going to be so much food in Samaria, such an abundance, that at the city gate, food will be sold for dirt cheap. There'll be so much. And when the guy hears it, he's like, no way. How could that possibly be? Total unbelief. But Elisha is speaking prophetically from the very heart and the very mouth of God. We see that in this guy's response are the words of doubt and unbelief. He wasn't believing God or taking him at his word or his promise. So Elisha sort of lays out a little curse on this guy. He says, in fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Matthew Henry says this about unbelief. He says, unbelief is a sin by which men greatly dishonor and displease God and deprive themselves of the favors he designed for them. What's the sin that will keep you out of heaven ultimately? The sin of unbelief. Now remember, This happened in the New Testament, something similar, not as harsh or extreme, but do you remember when Zechariah went into the temple to minister and the angel appeared to him and he said, hey, Zechariah, guess what, good news, you and your wife Elizabeth are gonna have a son in your old age, and he's like, what? How can this be? And he didn't believe him, and so the Lord said, since you didn't believe me, you're not gonna be able to talk until the baby's born, and he went where he couldn't speak. and so for that whole time he couldn't talk he could just you know give people signs and try to tell them what happened when he was in the temple but the lord disciplined him for his unbelief well here this guy's about to get disciplined we'll see here in a little bit for his unbelief and we'll see how god but we also see how god miraculously intervenes and fulfills his word and his promise and i love the thing about this that god always fulfills his promises. God's promises are always fulfilled. Look at what happens as we continue on. Look at verse three. It says, now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, why are we sitting here until we die? Now remember leprosy, when you had leprosy, you were ostracized, and so they were thrown outside probably of the gate, just sitting there, starving themselves. And so they start to talk amongst themselves. They said, why are we sitting here until we die? If we say we will enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall only die. They were at a point where there was no hope. They were out of options. They said, look, we're gonna starve here. If we go in the city, even if they let us in, we're gonna starve in there. Why don't we just go surrender? And if they kill us, they kill us. If they let us live, then good for us. So they decide to follow through with their plan. Verse 5. And they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was there. So think about it. They had been there, camped, you know, besieging the city for probably months now. and all of a sudden they walk over to the camp, and when they get there, they're all gone. But here's why they were all gone, because the Lord did a miracle, and here was the miracle, it's really cool. Verse six, for the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army. So they said to one another, look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us. Therefore they rose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact, their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, and they fled for their lives. I call this the miracle of sound effects. Right? They hear, you know, whatever the sound of chariots and horses rushing toward them, even though it's not real, they hear it, and they get so afraid, and then they come to the wrong conclusion. They conclude, they're living in fear now, and fear will make you think crazy stuff, and they think, oh no, Israel has hired, you know, the Hittites and the Egyptians to come attack us. So they think they're coming with their horses and chariots, so they get so afraid, they run from the camp and they leave everything behind, their tents, their horses, their donkeys, and they fled for their lives. And so, verse eight, and when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank. and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them. And then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it." These guys are like, we score. Like they're stealing gold, they're stealing all this stuff, and they're stealing clothes, and they're hiding this stuff. And then all of a sudden, they realize their conscience gets to them. Verse nine, then they said to one another, we are not doing right. This is a day of good news and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. So I love what happens here. There's sort of this awakening of their conscience, or I don't know if it's the Holy Spirit or whatever, and they're like, wait a minute, here we are, we're full, our stomachs are full, we've had all this food, and now we've got all this loot, and we're having a good old time, and everybody back at home is starving. We better go back and let's tell the king what's happened. Verse 10, so they went and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them saying, we went to the Syrian camp and surprisingly, no one was there, not a human sound, only horses and donkeys tied and the tents intact. So like, we got great news, right? They're telling the guys up on the wall. And so in verse 11, and the gatekeepers called out and they told it to the king's household inside. So the king arose in the night and said to his servants, let me now tell you what the Syrians have done to us. Now remember this king, he's a wicked king, he's an unbeliever. God right here is showing them tons of grace and mercy again. But he starts to get paranoid. Let me tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, when they come out of the city, we will catch them alive and get into the city. So the king thinks it's a trap. And so he's like, I don't think we should go for that, because I think they're just tricking us. Verse 13, and one of his servants answered and said, please, let several men take five of the remaining horses I think they say that in light of the fact that they hadn't eaten them yet. Five of the remaining horses which are left in the city, look, they may either become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it, or indeed, I say, they may become like all the multitude of Israel left from those who are consumed. So they said, they were basically coming to the same conclusion. Look, what do we have to lose? Let's go check. Take the horses, go out there and see if you can find out what happened. If they die, they die because they're going to die in here anyway. So what do we have to lose? So let's send them and let's see what happens. So the king agrees. Therefore, they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them in the direction of the Syrian army, asking or saying, go and see. Verse 15, and they went after them to the Jordan. And indeed, all the road was full of garments and weapons, which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. So the messengers returned and told the king. Now this must have been comical. I mean, if we could have been there to see it like it was a movie or you're watching it, right? Just to see them running. I mean, they ran out of the camp. As they're running, they're tossing their swords, their helmets, everything that was too heavy and just running to get away. And they run all the way to the Jordan, however far away that was. probably a few miles at least, and they get to the Jordan, they cross the Jordan River, they're running home, they're going back home to Samaria. And so they get out there, and sure enough, they're not there at all. And then it says, and it says, so they went after them to the Jordan, and indeed all the road was full of garments and weapons, and the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. So the messengers returned and told the king, Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a sea of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two seas of barley for a shekel according to the word of the Lord. So everything that Elisha said now happens the next day. There was such an abundance of food in the camp and they plundered everything. They come back and they've got way more than they need now. So now they're selling it. Verse 17, now the king had appointed an officer on whose hand he had leaned and have charge of the gate. Guess who that guy was? We'll see here now. But the people trampled him in the gate. Notice where it says, an officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. This is the same guy that said to Elisha, no way, not even if the windows of heaven were open could this happen. And then Elisha says, you know what? You're gonna see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat it. Guess what happens to him now? And so this guy, just like Elisha said, he had charge of the gate, but the people trampled him. They were running. They trampled him in the gate, and he died just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. Now, I can see dying, you know, at the stampede of horses, the stampede of buffaloes, the stampede of, you know, wild something, animals, whatever. But, you know, people have died a lot being stampeded by people. You've heard about it at concerts and stuff like that, where people just start freaking out and panic and start running and people fall down and then they just get stepped on and stepped on and then they die. Well, this is what happens to this guy. What a horrible way to go, right? But Elisha prophesied, you're going to see it happen, but you're not going to get to eat any of it. And so he died, he was trampled, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him. Verse 18. So it happened, just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, two sieves of barley for a shekel and a sieve of fine flour for a shekel shall be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria. Then that officer had answered the man of God and said, now, look, if the Lord would make the windows of heaven, could such a thing be? And he said, in fact, you will see it with your eyes, and we're reiterating it now. We shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died. And so, Elisha is involved in another miracle. I mean, Elisha doesn't do the miracle. All the miracles that happened were God. God was working in Elisha or through Elisha or Elijah. But this miracle of them having food and not dying of starvation is pretty cool and it was the miracle of sound effects that God sent to scare this army away and then they came to the wrong conclusion and ran away and all that. So kind of a neat story. I love these Old Testament stories. It just kind of shows us the faithfulness of God, the power of God, the ability of God to, on our behalf, work when we call upon Him or when we're desperate for His help. You know, as these people were, they were dying of starvation, and God, in His mercy, spared them. So we're gonna partake of communion next. And so, I think the worship team's gonna come up. Is Tamara here? Oh, there she is. I didn't see her. So we're going to partake of communion. And I kind of want to go back to that definition of communion. I was at a funeral today. We did a funeral for Jerry and his wife. Is Kenny here? Jane, yeah, they used to come to church here years ago, and Jerry passed away. So I did his funeral today, but the family requested that we would play or sing Amazing Grace. And I don't know if you guys know the story behind that song, I don't know, I'm not gonna go into long detail about it, but the guy that wrote that song, he wrote it after he had been a, as he says in the song, a wretch, right? And he was a slave trader, and involved in buying or capturing and buying and stealing or whatever they did, and then selling slaves, which was a horrible, horrible thing. And they said he was a wicked, evil man. And then the Lord got a hold of him and he got saved. He repented and gave his life to Christ. And he wrote that song, Amazing Grace. And so when we hear about grace and we hear about God's mercy towards us, it's a wonderful thing because grace means, like I said earlier, the free, unmerited, unexpected, unearned love of God with all of its benefits, delights, and comforts which flow from it. It means that while we were sinners and enemies, we have been treated by God with mercy and grace, and now we have become sons and heirs. So when we think about the amazing grace of God, or we hear the song Amazing Grace, you know, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, but was blind, but now I see. You know, that's a description of all of us. because all of us were in darkness. All of us, before we came to Christ, were living in a life that was separated from God, and we were alienated from God, and we were in sin, and our sin separated us from God. And we were all in desperate need of a Savior. I've been enjoying, and I don't like to do funerals, but I've been enjoying the fact that at funerals lately, I've just been telling everybody, look, every one of you in this room are without any hope whatsoever apart from Jesus, because you're a sinner. And Jesus came to save sinners. And the only hope that any of us have to go to heaven is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. By him taking and bearing our sins, dying in our place, the punishment that we deserved, we should have been hanging on that cross. We should have been the one being punished or suffering the wrath and the judgment of God. but he took our place, he drank the cup of our sin, but then in exchange he gives us his forgiveness, his mercy, and now we can drink the cup of his blessings. And not only are we blessed here in this life now, because of what the Lord has done for us, experiencing him, working in our lives, and just teaching us, and changing us, and giving us a hope beyond the grave, which every day we live with, right? We live with a hope beyond the grave. That's why, you know, doing these funerals for these Christians, these believers that have passed away, to be able to realize that, that there's a hope beyond the grave for every single one of us. and that we are going to someday, the scripture says that he will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Someday we're going to be in the presence of the Lord and we're going to be, and I was sharing today at the funeral that I don't believe that there's any way in human capacity in our minds that we can fathom how awesome heaven is going to be. It's gonna be way better than we could, in our wildest imaginations. Because when we're there, we're gonna be blown away at its awesomeness. And we're only reason that we're there is because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Because he died to pay the debt of our sin that we did not deserve, but he did it anyway because he came into the world to save sinners For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son for you and for me. And what a blessing it is to realize that. So we're going to partake of communion tonight, remembering our Lord and all that He went through for us and what He did for us. And that because of what He did for us now, we have a relationship with Him that is going to last for eternity. Amen? So you guys can come up and we'll partake of communion. Take your little cup and sit back down and hold on to it.