2 Kings 7

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate; and they said to one another, "Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, 'We will enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall only die." And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there. For the LORD had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses—the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!" Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact—their tents, their horses, and their donkeys—and they fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back and entered another tent, and carried some from there also, and went and hid it.

(2Ki 7:3-8)

Today we have another great illustration of faith in action. Our story starts with FOUR LEPERS. In the bible, leprousy is often a picture of sin. If you will, these 4 lepers give us a picture of ourselves, sinners in desperate need of a savior. Inside the city, there is a famine. People are dying, there is no food available! The reason for the famine is that they are currently under siege by the armies of Syria. Nothing comes in, and nothing goes out. If they stay in the gate they will die. If they go into the city, they will die. They decide that they have nothing to lose really, they are gonna die anyway, so they take their chances with the armies of Syria.

They take a step of faith, and head out of the gates towards the camp of the Syrians… they don’t know what will happen, will they be killed, forced into slavery, or will the Syrians have mercy on them? When they get to the camp, they are met with a surprise. All of the Syrians are gone, but all of their gear is left. Food, tents, Gold, silver, horses and mules! There it was just waiting for them, and there was a whole city on the other side of the wall starving to death.

This is our story. Salvation is ours, but it takes a step of faith. Like the lepers, we have found God’s gift of salvation, we have been rewarded greatly for our faith. What will we do? Will we hoard the treasure that God gave us for free? Or will we share it with thoe who are still starving, dying in their sins? My father-in-law has a saying that reminds me of this story. He says, “I’m just one beggar telling another where to find a piece of bread”. We were dying in sin, and we found a cure in Jesus. Will we share that cure with the rest of the world? Read the rest of the story and see for yourself what these beggars did; then think how you ought to treat the lost around YOU.