Never mock tomorrow!

I want to take our minds back to the book of 2 Kings, chapter 7. I would be comparing 2 groups of people;

1.      The king and the officer on whose hand he leans; I will like to describe them as the privileged

2.      Four men with leprosy; permit me to describe these men as the less privileged.

They lived in the same land, at the same time, and at a season where there was famine in the land. God sent a word through his servant, Elisha, the word was supposed to benefit all in the land. A word so precise it talked about time, produce and location.

The privileged

In verse 1, Elisha said, “hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.  The officer said to Elisha, “Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

This is Elisha’s response to the officer, who was full of unbelief, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”

The less privileged

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?  If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, ……so they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys.

 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

 Taking a closer look..

At this point I will like to tell you why I described them as the privileged and the less privileged. It has nothing to do with their physical state, position or health, but everything to do with access to the word of God!

Note that the Bible did not say that God sent Elisha to the four men with leprosy, they did not enjoy that privilege of hearing the word from the man of God; but on the other side, the man on whose shoulder the king leans had first hand information! He was present when Elisha spoke; He heard him clearly, but chose to disregard the privilege.

Most of us are like that today, God sends his word to us but we fail to see what a privilege it is. Are we saying that God is a liar, or are we saying that there are some problems too big for him to solve? Are we saying we would be better off without the word of God?

The word he gave to Elisha, like I said earlier had to do with time, produce and location. Let’s see how it applies to us today. Sometimes God sends us his word, he even goes an extra length at times to confirm the word through two or more witnesses, but this is our reaction….

With the ‘time’ we say, “oh! I believe God can do this thing but not anytime soon, maybe in a few months time, maybe next year.. but definitely not now.

With the ‘produce’ we say, “oh! how am I going to survive on this salary, or, we say, this business can never generate the funds I need to take care of my family and I.

With the ‘location’ we say, “Oh well, maybe there is hope but not in this town, or not in this country, I have to travel really far to get help.

Do you know that it is a privilege every time God sends his word? We mock tomorrow, and God; the one who created time, everytime we exercise unbelief!

After the men with leprosy had told the king what they saw, and the king had sent his messengers to confirm… In verse 15-18, “ …the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the LORD had said.

 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.

 He mocked tomorrow, and it cost him his life!