24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilised his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long … 2 Kings 6
This foreign king had brought up his whole army and laid siege to the city of Samaria. The people were suffering greatly through starvation and lack. They had no means of escape and in a fit of angst the king of Israel swore he would kill Elisha, God’s prophet, that same day. The enemy hates prophets and the prophetic, because it enables people to look beyond their current situation and hear the word of God for the future. The prophetic should bring us hope!
32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. (THE ELDERS SAT WITH THE PROPHET IN TIME OF SEVERE DIFFICULTY) 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?’ 33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.
The threat to Elisha was real and no doubt the king would have executed him if he’d been able to lay hands on him. However, at just the bleakest moment the Lord sent a word of deliverance through the prophet.
7 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 7:1
Hear the word of the Lord, the siege is about to be broken and there’ll be plenty to eat for everyone. They’d lived in lack for such a long time and the Lord was saying that food was going to be plentiful the very next day.
2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, ‘Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?’
An officer of the king spoke, when he had no need to speak. He usurped the position of his master by denying the word of the Lord and it cost him his life. I am reminded of two incidents in scripture when people wrongly touched the things of God and paid for it dearly. The first was the twelve spies who went into the promised land, saw the goodness of the land, but refused to go in and take from the enemy. An entire generation died in the wilderness as a result. The second was Uzzah who touched the Ark of God when the oxen stumbled and the cart shook. He touched something sacred and it cost him his life.
People today have been under siege by wickedness for a long time and many have become desperate. God’s word has been coming again and again through prophetic voices to say that breakthrough is upon us. Those who look with the natural eye don’t see it and are prone to doubt what’s being spoken. Like the besieged in Samaria we may have suffered long and the situation seems impossible, but don’t disbelieve God’s word of deliverance. He broke the siege of Samaria in the night hours while people slept.
May the Lord bless and keep you secure in His promises. Immanuel, God is with us.