Turning “Led” into Gold – Part 9

Obedience may require what many would call drastic action.

Isaiah 1:19 – If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.

Today I encourage you to read 2 Kings 7.  There you will find a marvelous example of our focus in this series of Second Milers.  Israel was in famine.  Times were very difficult.  The Syrians posed great threat to the people, adding to the horror of the day.  Outside the city gate sat four leprous men.  Being unclean, they had no legal (by the Law) to any means of having their needs met, and that included food.  They, too, were starving.  The day came when the prophet of God, Elisha, told the king that the next day there would be a dramatic breakthrough and food would be very cheaply purchased in the city gate.  You see, God had a plan.

After this news was given to the king, it is evident that the Lord moved on the four lepers who were outside the city gate, starving like everyone else.  They began to talk among themselves and asked, “Why sit we here until we die?”  They knew there was no food in the city, so they determined to go to the Syrian camp.  When they arrived, all the Syrians had fled.  God had caused the approach of four lepers to sound like the approach of a great army of chariots, horses, and men.  There, before these four lepers, lay the camp of the Syrians, empty of men, and in  the camp they had left behind all their gold, silver, clothes, animals, and supplies.  The lepers entered a tent in the darkness of the morning, ate and were filled, and loaded up with silver, gold, and garments. 

They then determined to go tell the king’s household of what they had found, and the people of the city enjoyed exactly what Elisha had said would happen.  The people were fed, clothed, and greatly enriched by what the Syrians had left behind in their camp.  There can be no doubt that the lepers were “led” to go to the Syrian camp.  By their obedience, deliverance was wrought, and bountiful supply was rendered.  But note that it was not the obedience of the king or of all the people, but of four lepers.  On that note, consider the following.  Is it possible that your personal obedience may turn to the deliverance of and provision for people of God on a much larger scale?  When things are not going well, and when it seems that everyone is in the same boat of oppression, need, despair, hunger, and want, it is easy to join the crowd in attitude, if not in presence, and sit by hopelessly thinking the end is near.  But when just a few, or even one, will rise up in obedience to the leading of the Lord, I assure that deliverance and abundance is available.  You see, the wealth of the sinner is TRULY laid up for the just.

Manna for Today – Isaiah 1; 3 John 2; Exodus 13:18; Exodus 15:13-18; Isaiah 48:21-22; Romans 8:14; Isaiah 55:11-13; Galatians 5:16-26; Ephesians 4:8; 1 Peter 1:7