IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Elisha's Promise of Deliverance

Date: Mar. 11, 2019

Passage

2 Kings 6:24-7:2 (ESV)

24 Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. 26 Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” 27 And he said, “If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?” 28 And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.” 30 When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body—31 and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

32 Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” 33 And while he was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the LORD! Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 7:1

But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.”

1. Israel under siege (6:24-33)

Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, with his entire army laid siege to Samaria for a long time, such that food prices were astronomical. Starving mothers ate their own babies (28-29). When the king heard this report, he was so exasperated and gave up repenting in sackcloth and wanted to kill his shepherd Elisha. However, Elisha kept his spirit and was not daunted (though he did take precautions to block his assassins). When he met his shepherd Elisha, the king complained fiercely that he was tired of waiting on God.

2. Elisha's promise of deliverance (7:1-2)

The travesty of the siege was an opportunity to reveal God's glory and deliverance to his people. Elisha prophesied that the very next day flour and barley, the staples of food, would be sold inexpensively and amply. The officer on whose arm the king was leaning planted unbelief. Elisha prophesied that he would see it, but not partake in any because of his poisonous doubt.

Prayer: Prayer: Lord, forgive my impatience and unbelief. Help me to learn faith in adversity and experience your deliverance.

One Word: Faith in times of adversity leads to deliverance

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