Baptist Fellowship Church

And You Remain Silent

2Kings 6:24-7:20

Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” (2Kings 7:9)

The story tells us of the besieged Northern Kingdom of Israel by Ben-Hadad, king of Syria. The city of Samaria was starving and God’s people were holed up in the city paralysed in their cynicism and lack of dependence upon the Lord.

It took four outcasts, lepers, to lead the way out of their dilemma. Such is the story of God who uses whoever is willing, not kings or aristocrats but the simple unschooled peoples, the commoner and the outcasts.

What transpired in this story?

The people starved and cannibalism was even evident to show how bad the situation was. Still they did not heed God. In fact the King blamed God for this calamity. He sent an officer to kill Elisha. The officer was representative of the people in general – a sense of doubt of what God could do. But not so the lepers who in their simple conclusion felt it better to die seeking than sit and starve. They went to the enemy camp and lo and behold the enemies had fled! God used their approach as a means of frightening the camped Syrians that a hoard of army from the Hittites and Egyptians were coming. They left in great haste, leaving everything behind, food, animals and even gold. The lepers feasted on the spoils. But they could not keep all the good things to themselves. Good news should never be kept to themselves because they will never enjoy all that food and all the riches. They brought the good news to the people in the city. Even then, the people in the city were cautious and full of doubt. Finally the gates were opened and they thronged the city outside, stampeding on the doubtful; cynical officer who saw salvation in his grasp but never got it.

Isaiah 1:18, 55:6, Matthew 11:28-30, Revelation 22:17 are some Scriptural texts that remind us that the Lord Jesus is always calling us to Him. If only we would all pick up our ears to hear and our hearts to heave to His call.

Yes how often do the unsaved see salvation within their grasp and not reach out, and how often do they see salvation only to have no hand reach out to them?

Is it because we have become too complacent?

We have become so complacent that we do not reach out with the Good News. We have become so complacent that we do not give our hand to those who seek fellowship and understanding of the message in the Good News. A church needs that constant revival to remind itself that one of its primary purposes is to witness and to spread the Good News. The Good News is Christ.

Mr and Mrs ET Chua

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.