2 Kings 7:14
Then the scouts took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army, saying, "Go and see."
Sermons
The Famine in SamariaMonday Club Sermons2 Kings 7:1-17
The Help that Comes to Distressed Men from WithoutD. Thomas 2 Kings 7:12-16
The Good News VerifiedJ. Orr 2 Kings 7:12-20














And the king arose in the night, etc. These verses suggest a few thoughts concerning the help that sometimes comes to distressed men from without. The best help that a man can get in any case is from within - from a right working of his own faculties, independence on his Maker. Still, help from without is often most valuable. There are three kinds of human helpers without.

1. Those that help men by their will. These are men, the chosen of the race, who lay themselves out for philanthropic service.

2. Those that help men against their will. It often turns out, as in the case of Joseph's brethren, that our enemies really serve us.

3. Those that help men irrespective of their will. We are helped in many ways by those who know and care nothing about us. We come into possession of their knowledge, inventions, property. The property of the men of the last age is ours today. Such is the kind of help which the Syrians now rendered the Israelites, and we offer three remarks concerning this help.

I. IT WAS NEEDED. The men of Samaria were in the utmost distress, and the king arose in the night and sent forth two of his servants (ver. 12) in pursuit of the Syrians to see what had happened. As they approached the spot they found that the Syrians had departed, but had left their property behind. "And the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste." Thus in the height of their distress they found relief. It is often so in passing through life; often so in individual as well as in social life. In the greatest extremity help appears. When the cloud is darkest a beam of light breaks on it.

II. IT WAS UNDESERVED. Did these Samaritans deserve help? By no means. They were nearly all idolatrous and worthless people. They merited condign punishment, everlasting ruin. This is true of all men as sinners. Whatever help we receive is utterly undeserved. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed."

III. IT WAS UNEXPECTED. They went forth longing for food, but quite uncertain whether they would find any. They found that the enemy had fled, and in their haste had left provisions behind. "So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel." Are not all men, in the providence of God, constantly receiving unexpected favors? The choicest blessings come when least expected. - D.T.

Then said Elisha, Hear ye the word of the Lord.
Monday Club Sermons.
The emphasis of the teaching of this account of the Samaritan famine should undoubtedly be placed upon the complete fulfilment of the word of God. The prophet specified the time when plenty would reign in the city. He named the price that would rule in the markets for breadstuffs. Elisha, the prophet of the Lord, since he left his twelfth yoke of oxen in the field to follow Elijah, had not watched carefully the prospects for a good crop in the valley of the Jordan. He could not have told the value of the freight arrived in Damascus by the last caravan from Persia. There were no bulletins that he had lately been consulting as to the outlook for a good harvest on the plain of Sharon or in the Nile valley. He had received no private advices of the number of cattle herding on the hills of Bashan. The ships that arrived at Tyre and Sidon with corn from Africa did not report their invoices to the herdsman's son in the beleaguered city. There was no private wire in the house of the man of God, that announced the arrival of rich convoys at the Red Sea ports, and which were now on their way to Samaria. Elisha was alone with the elders. The only messenger that came was one to take his life. Ignorant thus of the world outside, and yet undaunted, the prophet spake in the name of the Lord, telling the price of even the fine flour that only luxury could afford. On the morrow the humble workman could buy the barley for his frugal meal, and the high-born dame the necessaries for a feast. "Tomorrow about this time, shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria."

I. THE FLIGHT OF THE SYRIANS. The besiegers of Samaria did not deliberately gather their equipments and stores and return to their own country. They left everything, and that suddenly. The threatenings that came to them were such as to destroy all thoughts of anything but the safety of their own lives. Thus it was they left literally the spoil. The inhabitants of Samaria, if the enemy had slowly departed, might have gathered grain from other cities. This would have taken time, however, and the quantity that a country could furnish which an army had foraged over would have been small. The Syrians came for a siege, not simply as horsemen to make a wild foray and then retire. They were well equipped. Fine flour, that must else have been brought from far, or slowly ground from the corn, was already on hand for the perishing people. All this preparation, however natural it seems, was of God's planning. When the soldiers of Syria enlisted for a long campaign against Samaria, and the commissary trains gathered luxuries for a permanent encampment, the thing was under the eye of God. Emphasise the miraculous as we will, we must not forget God's provision for all results that seem to us so strange. God has His hand on the springs of all action and the sources of supply. Long before the Syrians began to prepare for the siege of the city, God had laid His trains to oppose them. If we think of God as a Father and Provider for mankind at every step of life, we shall be helped in our faith in Him as one who can work miracles. Faith is not difficult when we daily mount upward on steps of Providence.

II. THE CONDUCT OF THE LEPERS.

1. It was wise. There was only death if they returned within the city. There was one hope. They followed it. On a much greater question than that before the lepers, how many have decided so wisely as these outcasts? The teaching of this world and of men's hearts is that there is no salvation possible unless outside of self and mankind. The lepers seized their opportunity. It proved life for them. The future is not clear to any man, but it offers something real in Jesus Christ. Each of us has more to encourage us to accept Christ than the lepers had to go to the army of Syria. Let a man act on his best convictions instead of sinking down to die. He will find a boon more precious than that which the lepers found.

2. The conduct of the lepers was magnanimous. Men who are outcast from their fellows often feel, when good fortune comes, like retaliating upon those who have neglected or wronged them. A young man who has seen hardship in his early days is often tempted in the beginning of prosperity to show others that he can do without them. This bitter feeling because of neglect on the part of others often becomes a motive for effort towards success. It is ignoble for a man to cherish any of the wrongs he has endured. He ought to try and erase the scars that sorrow and hardship have wrought on his heart. The lepers were mindful of their duty to their fellow-men. They resolved to hasten back with the good tidings. No man, however poor or successful, neglected or exalted, but owes more to the world than he can repay, There is ever an unfailing obligation on every man to do all that lies in his power for the race Christ died to redeem. Learn of the lepers to be magnanimous. They showed they were still men with noble instincts that sorrow and neglect could not crush. There is always a temptation to keep the good to ourselves. We keep back the money, the kind words, the comfort that men need. If it is not done with malicious purpose, it is done in our stolidity, our indifference to others' necessities.

III. THE BLASPHEMING LORD. Over against the hope just held out by the man of God, the courtier places his sneer at all Providence. How many hearts would sink at his words? The widow still hiding her son from death will now conquer her maternal instinct and sustain life on the horrible sacrifice. Those who have been roused to hope will go back to deeper despair. A single day adds multitudes to the victims of the plague or famine. The blood of children, of men, and of women is on the head of the scorner. That the words of the king's favourite had a terrible effect upon the distressed city, we may infer from the manner of his death. When plenty came, the maddened populace trod to the earth the blasphemer and destroyer of hope.

(Monday Club Sermons.)

People
Aram, Egyptians, Elisha, Hittites, Israelites, Syrians
Places
Egypt, Jordan River, Samaria
Topics
Aram, Aramaeans, Aramean, Arameans, Army, Camp, Chariot, Chariot-horses, Chariots, Commanded, Drivers, Horsemen, Horses, Host, Mounted, Saying, Syrians
Outline
1. Elisha prophesies incredible plenty in Samaria
3. four lepers, venturing on the host of the Syrians, bring tidings of their flight
12. The king, finding by spies the news to be true, spoils the tents of the Syrians.
17. The lord who would not believe the prophecy of plenty is trampled in the press

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 7:8-11

     5426   news

2 Kings 7:9-11

     4933   evening

2 Kings 7:10-11

     5324   gatekeepers

Library
Silent Christians
'Then they said one to another, We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace; if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us; now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king's household.'--2 KINGS vii. 9. The city of Samaria was closely besieged, and suffering all the horrors of famine. Women were boiling and eating their children, and the most revolting garbage was worth its weight in silver. Four starving lepers, sitting by the gate, plucked
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Impossible, --Only I Saw It'
'Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour he sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 2. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Sin of Unbelief
However, the lord on whom the king leaned expressed his disbelief. We hear not that any of the common people, the plebeians, ever did so; but an aristocrat did it. Strange it is, that God has seldom chosen the great men of this world. High places and faith in Christ do seldom well agree. This great man said, "Impossible!" and, with an insult to the prophet, he added, "If the Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be." His sin lay in the fact, that after repeated seals of Elisha's
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

The Care of the Soul Urged as the one Thing Needful
Luke 10:42 -- "But one thing is needful." It was the amiable character of our blessed Redeemer, that "he went about doing good," this great motive, which animated all his actions, brought him to the house of his friend Lazarus, at Bethany, and directed his behavior there. Though it was a season of recess from public labor, our Lord brought the sentiments and the pious cares of a preacher of righteousness into the parlor of a friend; and there his doctrine dropped as the rain, and distilled as the
George Whitefield—Selected Sermons of George Whitefield

An Address to a Soul So Overwhelmed with a Sense of the Greatness of Its Sins, that it Dares not Apply Itself to Christ with Any
1-4. The case described at large.--5. As it frequently occurs.--6. Granting all that the dejected soul charges on itself.--7. The invitations and promises of Christ give hope.--8. The reader urged, under all his burdens and fears, to an humble application to him. Which is accordingly exemplified in the concluding Reflection and Prayer. 1. I have now done with those unhappy creatures who despise the Gospel, and with those who neglect it. With pleasure do I now turn myself to those who will hear me
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

The Section Chap. I. -iii.
The question which here above all engages our attention, and requires to be answered, is this: Whether that which is reported in these chapters did, or did not, actually and outwardly take place. The history of the inquiries connected with this question is found most fully in Marckius's "Diatribe de uxore fornicationum," Leyden, 1696, reprinted in the Commentary on the Minor Prophets by the same author. The various views may be divided into three classes. 1. It is maintained by very many interpreters,
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.),
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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