2 Kings 6:24 says, And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. After the Syrians left, Benhadad gathered all his troops and besieged Samaria. They had forgotten the kindness that the people of Isarel had shown them the last time they invaded. People will often forget the kindness Christians have shown them and once again begin to attack them. Verse twenty-five adds, And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. There was a famine in Samaria, and any food available became very expensive. The only way we can have a famine of God's word, the bread of life, in America is if we choose to, though in some other countries it is hard to come by. Still, even in the lack of a Bible, I believe that God will reveal His truth to us. Verse twenty-six continues, And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. When the king of Israel was passing by her on the wall, he heard a woman call out. The king was at least out and active among his troops. As we are out doing God's word today, if someone calls out to us for help. we need to heed their call. Verse twenty-seven states, And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress? Of course, the king pointed out that if God wasn't going to help them, what did he have to offer. If God is not with us as followers of Christ, then we have little to offer anyone spiritually. We cannot feed others with what we do not possess ourselves. Verse twenty-eight adds, 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 to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. The king asked her what was wrong, and she said that another woman and she had made a deal to eat her son one day and the other's son the next day. It is hard to imagine any mother who would do this, much less two mothers. No matter how bad things may be, we can never give in to evil in order to save ourselves physically. Verse twenty-nine continues, 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. The woman said they killed and boiled her son and ate him. The next day, when she asked the woman for her son, she hid him instead of killing him to be eaten. Some people are still willing to eat of what others have gained outside of God's will, but they are unwilling to share the burden of it willingly. Verse thirty declares, And it came to pass, when the king heard the 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. When the king heard this, he put on sackcloth in mourning what had happened. I don't believe that he condoned either action. When we know that something has been gained by sinful actions, we should never condone it, and we certainly shouldn't condone actions that would lead to further sin. Verse thirty-one adds, Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day. Of course, the king then went far astray, blaming Elisha for their situation and vowing to kill him before the day was over. When Christians are speaking God's word and something goes wrong in the world, people are quick to blame them for the calamity. Still, all we can do if we are to be obedient to God is to continue to speak His truth. Matthew Henry points out that the king did not blame his sins or the sins of the people, but he blamed the one that spoke God's truth. Verse thirty-two continues, But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat 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 hath sent to take away mine 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? Elisha was sitting with the elders when he acknowledged that the king wanted his head and had sent messengers to take him to the king. He told them to shut the door and keep it closed. If we are following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we should never be caught off guard spiritually. As believers, we must support one another in the fight against evil and do our best to keep evil locked out of our lives. Verse thirty-three concludes, And while he yet talked with them, 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? When the messenger got there, he said the evil was coming from the LORD and why should he wait on the LORD any longer. We can be certain that evil will never come from God, and we should never blame Him if we are suffering from the effects of evil in the world.
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