Hold the door shut… open the gate and get out of the way. 2Kings 6:32, 7:17
The siege of Samaria led to terrible suffering inside the city. The king couldn’t stand the situation any longer, he wore sackcloth(sign of mourning) under his clothes. He swore to kill Elisha the prophet that very day 2 Kings 6:31 and sent a messenger to Elisha’s house where the elders of Israel were gathered. God’s prophet was suffering along with the people, but the king was angry with God and wanted to take his life.
32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, ‘Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, SHUT THE DOOR AND HOLD IT SHUT AGAINST HIM. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?’ 2 Kings 6
Elisha resisted the wicked intentions of the king against him as the Prophet of God in Samaria and it was legitimate. We must learn to SAY NO AND TO SHUT THE DOOR AND HOLD IT SHUT TO THE THINGS OF THE ENEMY. Don’t yield to him.
It was a Turning Point! God’s Word of Deliverance for the whole city came at the greatest moment of desperation when all hope seemed gone.
1 Elisha replied, ‘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.’ 2 Kings 7
The officer who accompanied the king didn’t believe the Word of Deliverance, he didn’t believe even God could do that so suddenly. Elisha said, ‘you will see it, but not eat of it’.
In the nighttime God caused the whole Aramean army to think they were under attack and they fled leaving everything behind. Four lepers discovered this and reported it to the gatekeepers, who told the palace.
16 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.
17 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. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: ‘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.’
In a certain sense people have been under siege/lockdown in many places with the Covid virus; it’s been necessary to resist that sickness and many still face it. But there’s also a shout for Revival beginning to sound in the earth. Revival is and will be a Sovereign move of God, with powerful manifestations of the Glory of God. The officer at the gate was trampled because he tried to control people who were starving from getting to the food. When God moves in power there will be no slowing it or stopping it either, so don’t try. The starving people had to get relief and the man who tried to control them was trampled.
God bless and keep you today.