Today Is a Day of Good News
Text: 2 Kings 6:24–7:20 Series: Trust and Obey Bible version: New American Standard Bible 1995
Thesis
When deliverance appears impossible, God fulfills His word without depending on human strength, and those who discover the good news must not remain silent.
Introduction
Some silences appear cautious but are really selfish. If someone discovers that a bridge has collapsed, he must warn those coming behind him. If he finds medicine while others are dying from the same disease, he cannot hide it. If he discovers enough food for a starving city, silence is no longer a private choice.
Four rejected men found a camp filled with food, clothing, silver, and gold. At first they ate and hid the treasure. Then their consciences awakened: “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent.”
They did not produce the food, defeat the army, or open the city gate. They merely found what God had already provided. That is precisely why they had to announce it.
I. DESPERATION REVEALS WHAT RULES THE HEART (2 Kings 6:24–33)
A. The city was surrounded and without resources.
Ben-hadad gathered his army and besieged Samaria. The enemy did not have to enter the city. It only had to keep food from entering. Prices rose until people paid enormous sums for repulsive and nearly useless things. This was not a temporary inconvenience; the city was disintegrating.
Years earlier God had warned Israel that persistent rebellion could lead to this kind of judgment. The crisis did not prove that God had lost control. It proved that His word remained true even in judgment.
B. Sin carried desperate people into the unthinkable.
A woman appealed to the king because another woman had hidden her son after they had eaten the first woman’s child. Scripture does not beautify the scene. It forces us to see how far a society can descend when it abandons God.
The king could hear the case, but he could not restore the child or produce food. The need had passed beyond human ability.
C. The king showed grief without repentance.
He tore his clothing and wore sackcloth, but then swore to kill Elisha. He wanted to destroy the messenger rather than face God’s message. We can grieve over what sin costs us without grieving over the sin itself.
2 Kings 6:33: “Behold, this evil is from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”
The king had decided that waiting for God was useless. Yet delay does not necessarily mean abandonment. Sometimes God allows false securities to fail before showing that salvation belongs to Him alone.
II. GOD PROMISES WHAT HUMAN REASON DECLARES IMPOSSIBLE (2 Kings 7:1–2)
2 Kings 7:1: “Listen to the word of the LORD; thus says the LORD, ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’”
Elisha did not announce gradual improvement. God fixed the place, the time, and the prices. The next day abundance would stand at the same gate where fear and death ruled. The promise rested entirely on “thus says the LORD.”
The royal officer answered, “Behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He correctly understood that Israel could not produce such abundance. His error was treating Israel’s limitations as God’s limitations. Unbelief often calls itself realism while excluding the God who governs reality.
Elisha answered that the officer would see the fulfillment but would not eat from it. Being near a blessing is not the same as receiving it.
III. GOD ACCOMPLISHES DELIVERANCE WITHOUT ISRAEL’S STRENGTH (2 Kings 7:3–8)
Four leprous men sat outside the gate. They were not confident heroes planning to liberate the city. They merely recognized that remaining still guaranteed death.
2 Kings 7:3–4: “Why do we sit here until we die?… Now therefore come, and let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die.”
While they walked weakly, God had already acted powerfully. The Lord caused the Arameans to hear chariots, horses, and a great army. They fled at twilight, leaving tents, animals, food, clothing, silver, and gold.
Israel did not fire an arrow. When the four men arrived, the victory had already occurred. Deliverance began not with the strength of those who needed it, but with the action of God.
The men entered a tent, ate and drank, then hid silver, gold, and clothing. Their first response is understandable, but the provision was too great and the city’s need too urgent to make the discovery a private treasure.
IV. GOOD NEWS CREATES THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SPEAK (2 Kings 7:9–15)
2 Kings 7:9: “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent… Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”
No one caught them hiding the gold. Their own consciences corrected their silence. Food was available while people continued dying inside the walls. The good news did not belong to them. They were first recipients and then messengers.
God chose witnesses whom society kept outside. The first heralds were not soldiers, officers, or priests. The authority of their message did not rest on social importance, but on the truth of what God had done.
The king suspected a trap. Long exposure to danger made him interpret even deliverance as another threat. Yet the report could be examined. Messengers followed the road to the Jordan and found clothing and equipment abandoned along the way. Biblical faith does not ask us to believe an invention; it responds to true testimony about God’s acts.
V. GOD’S WORD IS FULFILLED, BUT UNBELIEF DOES NOT ENJOY THE BLESSING (2 Kings 7:16–20)
2 Kings 7:16: “Then a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.”
The narrator repeats the prices announced by Elisha. This was not a vague coincidence. God’s word was fulfilled precisely. In one night, the place of death became the road to provision.
The king placed the unbelieving officer in charge of the gate. The crowd trampled him, and he died. He saw the abundance and learned that Elisha had spoken truth, but he did not share in it. Scripture ends by repeating his unbelief and the prophet’s word. God’s promise and our response matter.
THE GOOD NEWS LEADS US TO THE CROSS
Samaria was surrounded, starving, and unable to save itself. We were dead in sin and unable to reconcile ourselves to God. Deliverance had occurred before the hungry people left the city. At the cross, God acted for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus bore our sins, died, was buried, and rose again. The decisive victory has already occurred; the gospel announces what God accomplished in Christ.
The lepers did not claim to have won the victory. They simply told others where provision could be found. We do not preach our virtue. We announce the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
The royal officer also warns us. A person may see Bibles, hear sermons, know Christians, and acknowledge facts about Jesus without receiving the salvation He offers. The gospel must be believed and obeyed. Those who come to Christ in faith, repent, confess His name, and are baptized enter a new life under His lordship.
Application
- Do not interpret God’s delay as His absence. We have no promise that every crisis will end tomorrow, but no period of waiting makes God’s word false.
- Do not measure God’s power only by the resources you can count. Faith does not deny visible facts; it refuses to treat them as the whole reality.
- Examine the good news rather than rejecting it out of fear. Christianity rests on publicly proclaimed events: Jesus died and rose again.
- Do not turn received grace into hidden treasure. Think of one person who needs to hear of Christ from you.
- Speak as a recipient, not the author of salvation. Evangelism is one hungry person telling another where bread has been found.
Conclusion and Invitation
The city had no strength, food, or way out. God spoke a word that appeared impossible, drove away the enemy without Israel’s help, and used four rejected men to announce the provision. His word was fulfilled exactly. Yet the man who despised the promise saw the abundance without enjoying it.
Today is also a day of good news. Christ died for our sins and rose again. Forgiveness is available and the door is open. Do not remain outside merely watching others receive what God offers.
If you have not obeyed the gospel, believe in Jesus, repent of your sins, confess His name, and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. If you are a Christian who has remained silent, ask God for courage and identify one person to whom you can speak.
“We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent.” May that not be said of us tomorrow.
Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
