Dateline 590 BC. Adapted from the original source in Second Book of the Kings
“During the last months of an intense famine that had women going to the King to settle the dispute over the unfairness of a broken deal between two women regarding boiling and eating their infants, it appears that the disaster has now been averted by the brave actions of four men who weren’t even allowed inside the city gates that protected the very people who ostracised them.
Ironically, the four men who were reported leprous were in no worse circumstance than anyone else in the city. Although their symptoms identified them as “losers” and unwelcome among the general population, the priests and other people of wealth and prosperity were living in no better situations than they. While the four were seated outside, alone with only those like them, they watched animal dung become a gourmet snack and people paying high prices to get the privilege. No meal or flour or any other options survived the famine that devastated the city and left all people equal, regardless of their former differences.
It is reported that the four men had a discussion among themselves and arrived at the conclusion that they had three options. Sit outside the city, where they were until they died or go into the city where the famine was, and that would surely kill them as well, or go out to the enemy Syrian army camp and ask for mercy. Only one option gave them the opportunity to act. The four men rose up and walked out toward the camp of the enemy hoping they would be granted respite from their starvation and acceptance in spite of their issues.
Interesting in these circumstances is the faith or lack of it in the Israeli God, Jehovah. It appears that the king and his men believed God existed, but during a prophecy spoken by the prophet Elisha, that the circumstances involved in the famine would all be changed within 24 hours, the king placed no confidence in the change, and one of the kings’ closest companions held the prophecy in derision by calling it “impossible”. According to the original source, the prophet then told the unbelieving man that he would see the miraculous change but would not benefit from it.
The conclusion of the famine was a direct result of the four people who society considered “less than” rising up in desperate times, with scant hope and moving forward to see what might happen as they marched toward an unknown destiny. Although they are without doubt the heroes used by God to rescue His people, we do not know their names. We only know that they encountered full tents, emptied of people, wealth, food, and material goods, enough to share with everyone in the city, and in their sharing of the good news, the economy and life for the city residents returned to normal. We know no more of the leprous men than that, for the account concludes without identifying them or relating their outcome.
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Jeremiah tells us two more important facts. The king’s man who disdained the word sent by God saw the situation changed, as Elisha said he would, but was trampled to death by the people heading out of their desperation, so the doubter became the casualty of the truth.
The intriguing testimony is that this was made possible by less important men obeying a prompt to “go” and the God who made a sound that caused their enemy to flee, proving that the wealth of the sinner was reserved for the righteous.”
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Is it possible that history repeats itself thousands of years later? Wars and women killing their children for their personal benefit, a failure in society to honor the living God. Could this have been the headline at that time?
If so, what should be our prayer? “God, one more time. Please make a sound. Make a noise that will drive out our enemies. Make another sound like Pentecost. ”
For His Glory 
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