“Why Sit Here Until We Die?”

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die?” 2 Kings 7:3

King Ben-Hadad of Syria besieged Samaria in the midst of a severe famine. So desperate was Samaria’s plight that people ate almost anything in order to survive. Donkey’s heads and dove’s dung were sold for exorbitant prices (2 Kin. 6:24-25). It was a dire time. But in 2 Kings 7:1, the word of the Lord came to Elisha saying, “By tomorrow, the famine will be over. Grain will be plentiful again!” Unfortunately, the officer of the king of Israel scoffed at that prophecy.

Meanwhile, there were four lepers sitting by the city gates. “Why sit here until we die?” They asked each other. “We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we might as well go out and surrender to the Syrian army. If they let us live, so much the better; but if they kill us, we would have died anyway” (7:3-4).

God is never moved by needs. God moves when we turn our faith loose. Those four lepers decided not to be passive and started to do something about their living condition. They chose to take responsibility of their own lives and step out by faith. That evening, as they walked toward the camp of the Syrians, God amplified the sounds of their footsteps. Although there were only four weak, sickly leprous men, the whole Syrian army heard the clatter of speeding chariots and loud galloping of horses. It was as if a great army was approaching their garrison. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us,” they cried out. So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else (7:5-7). When the lepers arrived, to their amazement they found the camp totally abandoned. What was left for their taking was an abundance of food, drink, silver, gold and clothing!

The four lepers speak of sinners everywhere who are languishing in their soul without hope in life. The devil seems like a powerful, impenetrable enemy. But when we decide to step out in faith and trust the Lord for our salvation, Satan will flee and we will enter into God’s abundant life.

But as the lepers enjoyed the spoils of war, their conscience began to bother them. How could they gorge themselves with food while the residents of Samaria were starving to death (7:9)? They decided to share the good news of salvation to the Samaritans and bring them out of death into life. We too cannot “remain silent” when this “is a day of good news.” We must share the gospel to those spiritually starving, living without hope, and take them into the abundant life Christ has promised.