Today's Daily Bread

LET’S GO AND REPORT GOOD NEWS

Date : Thursday, March 27, 2025
Passage : 2Kings 7:3~20
Keyverse : 20  
3
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die?
4
If we say, ’We’ll go into the city’ - the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."
5
At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,
6
for the LORD had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!"
7
So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
8
The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
9
Then they said to each other, "What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace."
10
So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there - not a sound of anyone - only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were."
11
The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.
12
The king got up in the night and said to his officers, "I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ’They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’"
13
One of his officers answered, "Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here - yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened."
14
So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, "Go and find out what has happened."
15
They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king.
16
Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the LORD had said.
17
Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.
18
It happened as the man of God had said to the king: "About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
19
The officer had said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" The man of God had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!"
20
And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
Four starving men with leprosy who lived outside the city gate could neither go inside the famine-stricken city nor stay there to starve to death. They had only one option to go surrender to the Arameans, although there was a slim chance for them to receive the mercy of the enemies. When they came to the Aramean camp, they found it empty of soldiers. God caused the enemies to hear the noise of a great army and to run away leaving everything behind.

The four men with leprosy enjoyed food and treasures. Soon they realized that God had brought the salvation not only to them but to the starving city. They felt they were responsible to share the good new with people in the city. They went back and shouted out the news to the city. God used these outcasts with leprosy to share the good news and to save starving people. Those who encounter the good news, Christ Jesus, are responsible to share it with starving and dying people.

After some careful checking as to the reliability of their testimony, the people went out and plundered the camp. As Elisha prophesied, God saved Samaria, but the unbelieving royal officer was trampled to death. There is a cost to unbelief.

Prayer: Lord, help me to be willing and responsible to share the good news to those who are spiritually starving and dying.
One Word: The Gospel must be shared.