I'm sure the thought in that title is something you wouldn't normally look forward to. Follow along and see what I mean though.
Vicksburg, Mississippi was one of the richest cities in the south and probably in the entire nation prior to the Civil War. The town was filled with grand homes owned by some of the wealthiest planters and business men in the region. It was a busy commericial port on the Mississippi River.
In 1863 though Federal forces took city under siege. They had not been able to successfully invade Vicksburg. Gunboats cut off the river to the west and regularly bombarded the downtown area. Troops led by General Grant dug in to the north, east and south. Entering or exiting the town was not possible. This began on May 22 and lasted until July 4. The citizens of this once rich and proud town were reduced to living in caves and surviving on rats. Most of us can't imagine how hard that would have been.
II Kings 6 gives us the story of Samaria as it lay under siege by the Syrian army. Verses 24 and 25 tell us that items once considered worthless were being bought and sold for incredibly high prices. The following five verses are so horrible I don't think it's possible for us to imagine how unbelievably difficult the situation was.
Those verses tell us of a lady explaining to King Jehoram that she and another lady had decided that to survive they would have to eat their children. They decided one day to boil this lady's son for food. They were supposed to boil the son of the second lady but she had hidden him. Talk about a disturbing picture of want!
Now look at II Kings 7:3-5. In those verses we find four lepers sitting outside the city gates. They are trying to choose between the better of three bad options. They stay where they are and die of starvation. They can enter the city and die or they can surrender to the Syrians. They figure the last option is best. There might be a small chance they will be fed by the invaders. If not, they figure death at the hands of the Syrian army will be quicker and easier than the death they face in town.
Verses 6-8 tell us that God 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 arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact..."
As a result of the camp being left intact, these four lepers who had been facing certain starvation found food. Can you imagine the swing in emotions at their discovery? God made the army flee. God provided the food these four men needed. They were saved. They also knew the people in the city were still starving and the food they needed was here in the camp. Unless they were told about God's deliverance they would continue to suffer and die. These lepers understood this and knew what they had to do.
To me verse 9 is the key to this story. "Then they said to one another, 'We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent..." Get the point? As Christians we know and remember the state we were in; our souls under siege and under attack by sin. If we didn't find a way out death and punishment were guaranteed to be our end.
God provided a way out. Jesus dying on the cross gave us the way out we needed; the spiritual food to save our souls. We now have all we need to live. We should be like these four lepers who also discovered God's salvation. Why are we so silent about what we have and what we know about? "We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent." Let's quit being so silent and quit treating salvation as a great secret. How good a day has this been? Why are we not making this the great day it really is and telling others?
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