{"id":3053,"date":"2019-05-07T20:00:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T03:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2019-05-08T20:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T03:00:07","slug":"2kings_7_1-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2kings_7_1-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Unbelief"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Kings 7:1-20 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 7:1-20.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 7:3-4 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’–the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-20:\u00a0 In the middle of a siege and famine in Samaria where food resources are increasingly scarce and expensive, Elisha the prophet predicts that\u00a0within 24 hours\u00a0the finest flour and barley will be sold for extremely cheap.\u00a0 An officer of King Joram does not believe it.\u00a0 In response to the officer\u2019s unbelief, Elisha states that this officer will see it with his own eyes but will not eat any of it (v2).\u00a0 Meanwhile, four lepers stand at Samaria\u2019s city gate and reason that to stay at the city gate or to go into the city is no use, and that their only hope is to go to the Aramean camp and surrender.\u00a0 When they reach the Aramean camp they see that the Arameans have abandoned their camp.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the Lord caused the Arameans to hear the sound of a great army advancing against them, and so the Arameans flee in fear, leaving their camp unguarded.\u00a0 The lepers enjoy the food and wealth that the Arameans have left behind before telling the Israelites.\u00a0 King Joram and the Israelites end up plundering the Aramean camp without having to raise a sword.\u00a0 The abundance of food supplies that the Israelites retrieved from the Aramean camp means that the finest flour and barley are sold at the extremely low prices that Elisha had predicted.\u00a0 So many Israelites flock to the Aramean camp that the officer who did not believe Elisha\u2019s words is trampled at the city gate.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Faith is not simply blind, but it\u2019s placing your trust in something or someone based on reason and evidence and drawing a conclusion from there.\u00a0 Faith is taking calculated risks that you believe are worth the cost of taking.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s what the 4 lepers did when they went to the Aramean camp.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Elisha did when he boldly predicted that food prices would drop.\u00a0 \u00a0God\u2019s kingdom and we His people advance when we move in the power of wise faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Unbelief is refusing to believe despite having good reason and evidence to believe.<\/strong>\u00a0 The officer who did not believe Elisha\u2019s words undoubtedly heard and may even have seen the miracles that God had performed through Elisha to rescue Samaria from Aramean attack.\u00a0 Yet he still refused to believe Elisha\u2019s words.\u00a0 The fact that he is trampled at the city gate suggests that\u00a0when we act in unbelief toward God and God\u2019s Word, we don\u2019t get to enjoy the blessings that God otherwise would have reserved for us<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that Your Word is trustworthy and true.\u00a0 Thank You that it is worth risking and putting our faith in You.\u00a0 May I and those in my care not live in stubborn unbelief, but may we remember that the same God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is with us today, and thus anything is possible for Him who believes.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Kings 7:1-20.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Kings 7:3-4 (NIV)\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?\u00a0
\n4\u00a0\u00a0If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’–the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses 1-20:\u00a0 In the middle of a siege and famine in Samaria where food resources are increasingly scarce and expensive, Elisha the prophet predicts that\u00a0within 24 hours\u00a0the finest flour and barley will be sold for extremely cheap.\u00a0 An officer of King Joram does not believe it.\u00a0 In response to the officer\u2019s unbelief, Elisha states that this officer will see it with his own eyes but will not eat any of it (v2).\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3082,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions\/3082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}