One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the story of four lepers outside the gates of Samaria, the capital of the Northern kingdom of Israel. It is not often that they take center stage in a story. Lepers were people with a skin disease that made them unclean and thus put outside the camp. At the time the story takes place, Samaria is under siege. The Syrian army from the North has taken their place around the city, letting nothing in or out. Inside the walls of the city, the people begin to run out of food. And while they are free within the city, the descreasing supply grows more and more expensive. It grows so expensive, that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver. Just to put that in perspective, a donkey was a work animal, not food. It was unclean according to Levitical laws to eat. Things are so bad that they are forced to eat work animals, and, as if that isn’t bad enough, they are down to the most inedible of parts—the head! 80 shekels is not small amount, either. It’s about 2 pounds of silver. As if this isn’t bad enough, they are selling dove’s dung for food. It is possible this was a phrase used to describe some terrible food, but it is also possible that it was literal dung, scavenged for undigested seeds. In other words, they are desperate. This is confirmed in that some have resorted to canabalism, eating their babies.
It is in the midst of such terrible conditions, with the most extreme sources of food are being sold for impossible sums that Elisha the prophet gives a prophecy.
But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” (2 Kings 7:1)
These are real foods, staples for the Israelite kitchen, and Elisha is saying they will be available tomorrow! Not only available, but cheap! It is news that sounds absurd given the present circumstances. It is too good to be true.
Does it happen? It does! How could this be? God caused the Syrian army to hear the sound of a great army of chariots and horses in the dark of night coming their way and it terrifies them so severely that they leave without gathering any of their tents or gear or supplies.
This is the stage for the 4 lepers. They too are starving as they sit at the gate of the city and have decided that their only hope is to seek food from the Syrian army. Their hunger has overcome their fear.
“Why are we sitting here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”
It is a last resort. But when they reach the Syrian camp, they find it empty of people but full of food and riches. They ate and drank and carried off silver and gold and clothing to hide for themselves. They go from famine to feasting, and from being the poorest of the poor to wealthy!
It is such a great parallel to the gospel. The one who puts his trust in Christ often does so because he recognizes that he is otherwise utterly lost. No other pursuit in life has fulfilled him and he finds himself empty and intuitively knows that he deserves to be treated like these lepers when it comes to their position in the camp-outsiders; unclean. And when that desperation finally drives him to Christ, he finds he has gone from a famine to feast for the soul. For that is the power of the gospel at work in a person’s spirit. He goes from spiritually poor, even bankrupt, to spiritually wealthy. It is news that seems utterly too good to be true! And yet it is. Paul describes this in
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:3)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? (James 2:5)
It is a glorious moment when the gospel becomes real in your life. The gospel changes you.
