Sometimes salvation comes from the unlikeliest places. It was that way in Samaria in the days of Elisha. Four lepers were used by God to bring salvation to a starving city. Why could God use them rather than the many mighty in the city? Discover how God wants us to be the World’s Richest Beggars still today!

<p>Sometimes salvation comes from the unlikeliest places. It was that way in Samaria in the days of Elisha. Four lepers were used by God to bring salvation to a starving city. Why could God use them rather than the many mighty in the city? Discover how God wants us to be the World’s Richest Beggars still today!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

World’s Richest Beggars

What a wonderful service we've had already.

Now as we take some time to consider God's Word, I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 7.

2 Kings chapter 7 is our story we're going to look at first this morning.

We're going to be talking about the world's richest beggars.

2 Kings chapter 7, we find the setting is that Ben-Hadad of Syria has laid siege on Samaria.

And as the siege continues, Samaria's situation becomes increasingly desperate.

In fact, we read in the last part of chapter 6 that there was a great famine in Samaria, verse 25 says, and indeed they besieged until donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and 1 4th of a cab of dove droppings for 5 shekels of silver.

And it becomes even more graphic and more desperate as you read on in chapter 6.

It's a terrible situation that Israel has found itself in.

And inside this city, these people are becoming hungrier and hungrier by the minute.

And Elisha says, 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 2 seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." Food, real food, good food was going to be available at one-fifth the price of, what was it?

This was going to be an amazing change of circumstances.

In fact, there were some that didn't believe it.

Verse 2 says, so an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?

And he said, Elisha says, in fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.

It's an unfortunate thing when we don't believe.

You know, God's Word is always true, isn't it?

Even if we don't believe, it doesn't make God a liar.

But those who choose not to believe will be like this officer of the king.

They may see with their eyes, but they'll never experience it with their heart.

They'll never know what God can really do for them.

The Bible says, "...there were 4 leprous men at the entrance of the gate, " outside of the city of Samaria.

You would think things would be bad inside the city, but outside the city, still surrounded by the Syrian army, are these 4 lepers, these 4 beggars, outcasts from society, terminal disease in their bodies, starving just like the rest of the Israelites, the Samaritans.

And it says in verse 3, they said to 1 another, why are we sitting here until we die?

If we say we will enter the city, the famine is in the city, and we will die there.

Let us surrender to the army of the Syrians.

There's something that they had, that the people inside this city didn't have.

These fellows had come to grips with the situation.

These fellows realized, we're terminal, we're going to die.

We're going to die here, we're going to die if we go in the city, We're going to die if we go to the Syrians, perhaps.

But we might as well surrender to the Syrians, because there's a chance then at least we'll have some food to eat.

5, And they rose 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 1 was there.

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 1 to another, Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the king of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.

Therefore, they arose and fled at twilight and left the camp intact, their tents, their horses and their donkeys, and they fled for their lives.

And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into 1 tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them.

Then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.

As they went from tent to tent, these lepers, these beggars realized, we've stumbled upon an amazing treasure.

We've stumbled upon the wealth of a nation.

We've stumbled upon more than we can even fully use ourselves.

They ate, they drank, they took what they needed, they hid, they took silver and gold and clothing, but after 1 tent, there was another tent and another tent, there were hundreds of tents.

They realized they were the world's richest beggars.

They realized the treasure they had stumbled upon was too big.

Overnight they'd become the world's richest beggars.

And this is what they said to themselves.

They said, verse 9, then they said to 1 another, we are not doing right.

This is a day of good news, and we remain silent.

If we wait until morning, some punishment will come upon us.

Now, therefore, come, let us go and tell the king's household." And the story continues and tells how when the king heard the report from these beggars, he couldn't believe it.

They sent scouts to check, and sure enough, all the way to the river, there were the remnants, the clothing, the articles that had been cast off in their haste, the Syrians fleeing from this imaginary host.

They opened the gates of the city, and the People had more than food.

Treasure of the Syrians had been given to them.

But the response of these beggars, I think, is very poignant.

The Good News Translation says we shouldn't be doing this.

We have good news and we shouldn't keep it to ourselves.

The New International Reader's Version says what we're doing isn't right.

This is a day of good news, and we're keeping it to ourselves.

We do not well, the King James Version says.

We've found something good, and this good thing that we've found is too good to keep to ourselves.

In fact, if we want to do well, If we don't want a curse to come upon us, we must tell others what we found.

I want to just look with you for a moment at the anatomy of these beggars' discovery.

First of all, they realized that their case was hopeless.

If they had not realized their case was hopeless, they would never have ventured into the camp of the Syrians.

You see, If they had thought there was still something they could do to save themselves, they would have remained where they were and died.

But because they realized that their case was hopeless, because they came to terms with it, because they came to grips with it, they were then able to go and to seek help, to surrender to the Syrians.

And once they did that, they recognized the immensity of the treasure which they had stumbled upon.

They realized this was not just a little bit of provisions that they could enjoy for a few days.

For all that they had found, there was more than they needed.

And as the immensity of their spoils began to dawn on their minds, they realized they were on to something big, they were on to something huge, they were on to something revolutionary and life-changing, and they couldn't keep it to themselves.

They realized that it was too good to be kept for themselves.

It was so big that it was bigger and better than they themselves needed.

It was far more expansive than they could use.

It was richer than they could possibly deserve.

All because they realized who they were and they realized the value of the treasure.

Back to Menu

World’s Richest Beggars

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Sound Doctrine