**Featured Scripture and Commentary**
*2 Kings 7:9 Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good news, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household.*
**CORROBORATING SCRIPTURE**
2 Kings 9:36, Matthew 28:19–20, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 6:2
*2 Kings 9:36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel.*
*1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.*
Romans 10:14 “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Revelation 3:16 “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
Amos 3:7″Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
### **A Dramatic Narrative of Divine Intervention**
Hope your day is good or starting off well, and thank you for spending some time with me as we dive into the Bible, and specifically 2 Kings. It’s kind of a big deal, and it’s kind of hefty, so let’s get through it quickly.
If you read the Bible like it’s a bunch of people from a long ago, yesterday, and in a different time, a different place—but actually, better food. Better food, health-wise, you know? I mean, it was all good meats, well-prepared lentil soup. The bread wasn’t like Wonder Bread; it was like full of hearty whole grains and so forth. Anyway, they didn’t have the internet, they didn’t have AI.
But 2 Kings 7 to 9 is a big deal. It’s a dramatic narrative of divine intervention, the judgment of evil, and the responsibility of those who have received good news. That means you. You are in possession of the best news that mankind has ever had, even if it’s been available for 2,000 years. People today still ignore it, still choose other things. You have the good news, so there’s a responsibility in that. The overarching message for today is that God can transform hopeless situations overnight, and those who have experienced his salvation have a duty to share it with a starving world.
If you’re not following New Age Jesus, which isn’t Jesus at all, instead of actually following biblical Jesus… and if you’re not the Israelis after leaving Exodus, who were so much getting on God’s nerves that they spent 40 years wandering in the desert and wilderness, and never did get into the promised land. They could have done that journey in 11 days, but they chose to be stiff-necked people and take every opportunity to complain and gripe. Don’t complain ever, ever. Be thankful.
### **The Urgency of the Four Lepers**
Here’s the breakdown for today’s life. The urgency of sharing the good news—that’s what we’re talking about here. It starts off with four lepers who discovered the abandoned Syrian camp and realized that keeping the food and spoils to themselves… I don’t know where the Syrians went, but they left behind everything. They left all their spoils and all of their unspoiled food. But these four lepers realized, well, you know, yeah, we’ve had a tough life, we’re going through pain and agony and suffering, but we can’t just keep all this stuff to ourselves. We are blessed right now with this incredible abundance. Their conclusion: “This day is a day of good news. If we wait until morning light, punishment will overtake us.”
You can’t even wait until morning. You got to go tell somebody right now about Jesus. I mean it. Go tell somebody on the internet or somewhere else about Jesus and about the abundance of mercy and grace and love. It’s a direct parallel for believers today to share the gospel and not dilly dally. Go do it.
### **Trusting God’s Word Over Human Logic**
Trust in God’s promise over human logic. Human logic would say you cannot cross the Red Sea, you’re going to drown. But, oh Mary, don’t you weep no more, Pharaoh’s army got drownded. When famine made survival seem impossible, Elisha prophesied abundance within 24 hours. There was a king’s officer who was a skeptic at heart, saying it couldn’t happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven. So he wasn’t totally agnostic—he believed in the Lord, he believed in heaven, he believed it had windows. And he died without eating the food. Because of his doubt, he did not gain access to the abundance that was there before him. The lesson is to trust God’s word even when circumstances seem impossible, or you may miss the blessing.
God is shown to be sovereign over history, directing kings like Hazael and Jehu to execute judgment on persistent wickedness. Persistent wickedness will face judgment. You might get away with one or two things, but if you’re continuously sinful, continuing acting in ways that’s not in God’s favor, God’s going to lose his patience with you as he did with the Israelites in Exodus.
Look at the danger of half-hearted obedience in 2 Kings 9. Jehu executed God’s judgment but failed to turn from the sins of Jeroboam, demonstrating that partial obedience is still disobedience. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t get married, have a wonderful wife, and then go cheat on her and watch certain videos on YouTube that none of us have any business going anywhere near.
### **The Prophecy of Living Bread**
Now let’s discuss messianic significance. Elisha’s promise of massive provision in the midst of utter starvation serves as a type of Christ who brings spiritual life and living bread to a world starving due to sin. You know, today’s like the first time, or I’ve had it on my mind like the last 48 hours, when we do communion and there’s bread—Jesus said he was living bread, and we’re doing this bread in remembrance of him. I don’t know that I believe what the Catholics believe, transmutation I think it’s called, that it actually turns into Jesus’s blood. That might be just a little bit too supernatural for me, even. But I do believe that it’s not just bread. I do believe that the meaning that we endow it with is holy and sacred and meaningful and impactful.
And look at the unlikely saviors: the four lepers, social outcasts, are the ones who bring the good news of salvation to the city. This parallels how God uses the foolish and weak things of the world to bring the message of Jesus. Oh, brother, is that ever true? I have been foolish and weak. The Lord has used me.
Then look at the judgment of the doubter. The officer who despised the prophetic word saw the blessing but did not share in it. This acts as a warning regarding rejecting the Messiah, Jesus. And lastly, the restoration of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 8, the restoration of her land by the king points to the ultimate resurrection power of Jesus and the restoration of all things for those who follow him. I’m going to get a list put together of all the people in the Old and New Testament who were resurrected. Not that they resurrected themselves, but that God resurrected them. There’s several.
### **Be Brave. Be Bold. Get Out There.**
Ultimately, the message, if you take something away from this video, here it goes: Do not hoard the good news. Just as the lepers could not keep the news of the abandoned camp to themselves, believers are called to share the salvation found in Jesus Christ, regardless of personal cost or fear.
I mean, there’s tens of thousands of people in Nigeria that are being slaughtered, massacred, just because they stand up and say that they’re Christian and they believe in Jesus. It’s not that it’s necessarily always safe to express your faith. There’s talk about Canada trying to make speaking references from the Bible a hate crime. We live in interesting times. We live in times where lawlessness is all around us, persecution is all around us, even here in the United States.
But if you let that keep you from spreading the good word, you lose. The person who you might have talked to about Jesus or sang a song about Jesus to, they lose. Be brave. Be bold. Get out there. Speak about Jesus to anybody and everybody that will listen—and speak about him twice to those who won’t. Okay, that’s all I got. I’m done. I hope you got some benefit out of that. And I’ll see you next Monday.
**PRAYER FOR WHOMSOEVERS**
Lord, keep me from a life of complaint, griping, or half-hearted obedience. Forgive me for the areas where I try to have my cake and eat it too. Give me the urgent heart of the lepers to never hoard the incredible abundance of Your good news. Break my doubt, any uncertainty or unbelief so I don’t miss Your blessings, and give me the boldness to stand bravely for Jesus in a lawless world, speaking Your truth to everyone who crosses my path. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
