2 Kings 6:24-33 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 2 Kings 6:24-33. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
2 Kings 6:24-30 (NIV)
24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized 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 that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
27 The king replied, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?”
28 Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’
29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”
30 When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and there, underneath, he had sackcloth on his body.
On verses 24-30: King Ben-Hadad of Aram has laid seige to Samaria, Israel’s capital city. Without access to food, Samaria suffers a severe famine. The Israelites in Samaria are so desperate that in verses 26-29 we read about two Israelite mothers who apparently agreed that they would eat their sons to survive. Now that one mother’s son has been eaten, the other mother refuses to let her own son suffer the same fate. So they call out to Joram King of Israel to make a decision. (This conflict between two mothers recalls a previous conflict in 1 Kings 3 when King Solomon had to judge between two mothers who both claim that their own son is the living one while the other’s son is the dead one.)
What can we learn from this? These mothers were willing to eat a son in order to survive, yet even their son’s flesh would not sustain them forever. In contrast, in John 6:53-55 Jesus makes a statement that many would misunderstand:
53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Jesus was not advocating cannibalism. Rather he was urging us to depend on Him. Only His sacrificed body on the cross and His shed blood can give us the life that we really hunger for: a life where we are forgiven of our sins and have a relationship with God.
2 Kings 6:31 (NIV)
31 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”
On verses 31: In the midst of the siege and famine, Joram King of Israel is depressed and at his wit’s end about what to do (v30). He defaults to blaming Elisha for all this trouble and looks to kill him. King Joram sends a messenger ahead of him, perhaps as a final warning to Elisha. Elisha is aware of the king’s intention and warns the elders of Israel about what the king wants to do.
King Joram considered Elisha to be his enemy and the cause of Aram’s attacks. How quickly he had forgotten that God had used Elisha repeatedly to save Israel from Aram’s attacks (see verses 8-23). What can we learn from this?
1. Pressure tends to reveal our true character.
2. Don’t be quick to forget the good things that God and God’s people have done for you. Rather than blaming God or others whenever you face a problem, take responsibility for your part and trust God that He is working all things out for good.
3. Remember that your enemy is not flesh and blood but Satan (see Ephesians 6:12). Satan would love for you to think that your biggest problem or your biggest adversary is another human being, for Satan does his best work when he is left unrecognized and undetected. Remember who your real enemy is and resist him (James 4:7).
Father, thank You for the life I have in Your Son Jesus. May I always be clear on who my real enemy is. It’s not You. It’s not people. But it’s Satan. Help me to stand strong against Satan by Your power at work in me and not to be distracted by the sneaky games Satan plays to get me to blame and attack other people. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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