2 Kings 6-7: With Help from God the Lost is Found, a Man and a City are Saved

As we go through the Old Testament, we’ll often come across the phrase, “I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies have spoken.” It’s used as the prophets warn the people of Israel and Judah of what will happen to them if they continue their pagan ways. It confirms that what the prophet is saying is not from himself, but from God. Now, imagine what “Heaven’s Armies” might look and sound like and you can visualize what happens in one of today’s stories. Obviously, in preparation for the future prophets, God wanted to show the people of Israel that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies means business. Let’s dig in…

2 Kings 6

One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, “As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. ²Let’s go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.”
“All right,” he told them, “go ahead.”
³“Please come with us,” someone suggested.
“I will,” he said. ⁴So he went with them.
When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. ⁵But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell into the river. “Oh, sir!” he cried. “It was a borrowed ax!”
⁶“Where did it fall?” the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface. ⁷“Grab it,” Elisha said. And the man reached out and grabbed it.

A Pause to Ponder

This is a miracle of retrieval. On our own, we are sunk — headed for hell. However, God produced a stick — an old rugged cross — and retrieved us from being lost to Satan and death. If you are lost — heading in the wrong direction — Jesus can raise you up just like that iron axe head. It’s actually rather simple. Click here to find out…

Continuing…

Elisha Traps the Arameans

⁸When the king of Aram was at war with Israel, he would confer with his officers and say, “We will mobilize our forces at such and such a place.”
⁹But immediately Elisha, the man of God, would warn the king of Israel, “Do not go near that place, for the Arameans are planning to mobilize their troops there.” ¹⁰So the king of Israel would send word to the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he would be on the alert there.
¹¹The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called his officers together and demanded, “Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?”
¹²“It’s not us, my lord the king,” one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!”
¹³“Go and find out where he is,” the king commanded, “so I can send troops to seize him.”
And the report came back: “Elisha is at Dothan.” ¹⁴So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city.
¹⁵When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha.
¹⁶“Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” ¹⁷Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
¹⁸As the Aramean army advanced toward him, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, please make them blind.” So the Lord struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked.
¹⁹Then Elisha went out and told them, “You have come the wrong way! This isn’t the right city! Follow me, and I will take you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to the city of Samaria.
²⁰As soon as they had entered Samaria, Elisha prayed, “O Lord, now open their eyes and let them see.” So the Lord opened their eyes, and they discovered that they were in the middle of Samaria.
²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he shouted to Elisha, “My father, should I kill them? Should I kill them?”
²²“Of course not!” Elisha replied. “Do we kill prisoners of war? Give them food and drink and send them home again to their master.”
²³So the king made a great feast for them and then sent them home to their master. After that, the Aramean raiders stayed away from the land of Israel.

Another Pause to Ponder

Here we have the miracle of revelation. Whenever Syria (Aram) would have a new battle strategy and plan, God would enlighten Elisha, who then informed King Joram of Israel and the enemy’s plans were thwarted.

Just as God can blind people to the truth, he can open your eyes to see the truth. Just ask Him!

Ben-Hadad Besieges Samaria

²⁴Some time later, however, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army and besieged Samaria. ²⁵As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.
²⁶One day as the king of Israel was walking along the wall of the city, a woman called to him, “Please help me, my lord the king!”
²⁷He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.” ²⁸But then the king asked, “What is the matter?”
She replied, “This woman said to me: ‘Come on, let’s eat your son today, then we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹So we cooked my son and ate him. Then the next day I said to her, ‘Kill your son so we can eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.”
³⁰When the king heard this, he tore his clothes in despair. And as the king walked along the wall, the people could see that he was wearing burlap under his robe next to his skin. ³¹“May God strike me and even kill me if I don’t separate Elisha’s head from his shoulders this very day,” the king vowed.
³²Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders of Israel when the king sent a messenger to summon him. But before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “A murderer has sent a man to cut off my head. When he arrives, shut the door and keep him out. We will soon hear his master’s steps following him.”
³³While Elisha was still saying this, the messenger arrived. And the king said, “All this misery is from the Lord! Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
2 Kings 6 NLT

More Thoughts

As it turns out, what was happening here was prophesied by Moses back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. It was a simple matter of obedience. Obey and you will be blessed. Disobey and you will be cursed…

²⁷“If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, ²⁸then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins. ²⁹Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
Leviticus 26:27-29 NLT

⁵³“The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you. ⁵⁴The most tenderhearted man among you will have no compassion for his own brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving children. ⁵⁵He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring—the flesh of one of his own children—because he has nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns. ⁵⁶The most tender and delicate woman among you—so delicate she would not so much as touch the ground with her foot—will be selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or daughter. ⁵⁷She will hide from them the afterbirth and the new baby she has borne, so that she herself can secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to eat during the siege and terrible distress that your enemy will inflict on all your towns.
Deuteronomy 28:53-57 NLT

What Happens in a Siege

During a siege, the enemy would surround a city cutting off its supply chain. Eventually, the people would starve until they would give up, or attempt to leave, then the enemy would capture, enslave or kill them. This also caused hyperinflation and price gauging.

Elisha trusted God and knew that a miracle would happen. Too bad the officer doubted.

Going on…

2 Kings 7

Elisha replied, “Listen to this message from the Lord! This is what the Lord says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost only one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost only one piece of silver.”
²The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!”
But Elisha replied, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!”

Outcasts Visit the Enemy Camp

³Now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the entrance of the city gates. “Why should we sit here waiting to die?” they asked each other. ⁴“We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we will starve if we go back there. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”
⁵So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there! ⁶For the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. “The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!” they cried to one another. ⁷So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled for their lives.
⁸When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. ⁹Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren’t sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let’s go back and tell the people at the palace.”
¹⁰So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. “We went out to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” ¹¹Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.

Apparently, Heaven’s Armies are loud enough to scare men, but not the horses and donkeys!

Continuing…

Israel Plunders the Camp

¹²The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, “I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city.”
¹³One of his officers replied, “We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us.”
¹⁴So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. ¹⁵They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. ¹⁶Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that six quarts of choice flour were sold that day for one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the Lord had promised. ¹⁷The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out.
So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. ¹⁸The man of God had said to the king, “By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, six quarts of choice flour will cost one piece of silver, and twelve quarts of barley grain will cost one piece of silver.”
¹⁹The king’s officer had replied, “That couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven!” And the man of God had said, “You will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won’t be able to eat any of it!” ²⁰And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
2 Kings 7 NLT

His heart couldn’t believe what his mind couldn’t conceive. What Elisha was predicting seemed too outrageous to be true. Yet, it happen just like he said. Never doubt God. We have an outrageous God.

With that said, how do you know if what you’re hearing is from God or the devil? That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in! When you become born again, God gives you the Holy Spirit as a gift. With the Holy Spirit in your heart, you can discern — tell the difference — between the truth and a false teaching.

God Supplies Our Needs!

Jesus told us…

³³Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:33 NLT

Paul wrote…

¹⁹And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19 NLT

IN Jesus! Not with or through anyone else or any church. Only Jesus!

If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…