The fragile peace between Israel and Aram proved to be fleeting, as the king of Aram initiated a military campaign to seize control of Samaria by laying siege to the city. The siege was strategically planned to block the supply of food and water from the surrounding land, as farms and water sources were typically located outside the city gates. By surrounding the city with his military forces, the king of Aram made it impossible for the Israelites to access harvest or water sources.
The people of Samaria were left with only the food supplies within the city and the wells enclosed by the city walls. Thus, the king of Aram simply needed to wait out the starving Israelites until they eventually surrendered. However, the king of Israel failed to comprehend the severity of the famine or make any efforts to identify the root cause of the LORD’s anger until he was informed of a harrowing account by a woman.
A Tale of Two Starving Mothers
As Joram was surveying the city walls, he encountered a distressed woman who sought his help. She recounted a harrowing tale of a gruesome agreement between herself and her friend to eat their own children because of the relentless famine. She had approached the king with the weirdest of requests, to provide her justice by allowing her to eat the other woman's son. A nation in dire straits turns to drastic measures to sustain itself, even resorting to the unthinkable act of infanticide. The severity of the famine is unprecedented, leading a mother to contemplate cooking her own son as a source of sustenance.
This grim situation parallels a warning from God to the Israelites, cautioning them of the same dire consequences should they choose to disobey His commands and adopt the practices of their neighbouring nations (Deuteronomy 28:53-57). In stark contrast, we can harken back to the days of Solomon, when two prostitutes were entangled in a bitter dispute over the life of a child. Joram was taken aback by this distressing incident tearing his clothes and donning sackcloth.
The king was still conflicted, on the one hand, he recognized that his disobedience was the cause of the chaos around him and perhaps wanted to mourn rather than repent for his actions. On the other hand, he still held Elisha responsible for the state of his kingdom. However, he wore the sackcloth underneath his royal robe possibly to conceal his mourning. He felt awkward about revealing his repentant side to his royal subjects, as he did not want to tarnish his image in front of them. As a king, he always aimed to convey confidence that everything was under control and there was no cause for concern.
Oftentimes we know that we have done something wrong in the eyes of the LORD and while privately we are remorseful, our position in the world prevents us from displaying our remorse outwardly and we try to go on if we have not done anything wrong in the sight of God. The current state of Joram captures our struggle to maintain an external facade of righteousness while being torn apart by our state from the inside. He knows what he needs to do but to hold onto his throne he is putting the blame on Elisha for the famine in the land.
He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”
2 Kings 6:31 (NIV)
In the past, Elisha disclosed all the enemy’s plans to the king, yet in this instance he remained silent, allowing the famine to persist. This silence could have been perceived as an intelligence failure on Elisha’s part by the king. While the king knew the true source of the problem lay in his own corrupt ways catching up to him, he initially pinned the blame on Elisha and tried to make him the fall guy. Joram thought that by permitting the blind Arameans to return to their homeland unharmed, Elisha may have portrayed the kingdom as weak in the eyes of its enemies.
Elisha was at his home entertaining some elders when the king sent a messenger to him. However, even before the messenger arrived, Elisha told the men with him that the king was after his head and was blaming him for the famine in the kingdom. So they locked the door and would not let the messenger in. But the king also came to Elisha’s house and proclaimed that he was tired of waiting for the LORD.
“This disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”
2 Kings 6:33 (NIV)
This happens in our life as well when even after realising that God is cautioning us by sending troubles our way, we double down on our selfish desires and pursue our interests even more. When God warns us and prevents us from heading down a destructive path, we must have the presence of mind to veer away from destruction, instead of blindly forging ahead.
Deliverance is Only from the LORD
Elisha relayed to the king that the LORD would rescue them from their current plight. He prophesied that within a day, the finest flour would be sold at an unbelievably low price, and barley would also be available cheaply at the gates of Samaria. However, the officer accompanying the king expressed disbelief in Elisha’s prophecy, rejecting his words. In response, Elisha warned the officer that his lack of faith would result in instant death, preventing him from experiencing the LORD’s deliverance of His people from the gripping famine.
Outside the gates of the city, there were four men who had been outcasts because they suffered from leprosy. Their plight was even worse as their disease prevented them from going to their families even when their land was struck by famine. Ironically, Elisha healed the commander of the Arameans, who suffered from the same disease but these men were not healed in anticipation of this very day.
And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.
Luke 4:27 (NIV)
Their predicament had become so desperate that they were prepared to capitulate and become subjects of a foreign king in return for sustenance. Their standing in their homeland was tantamount to that of a slave. They pondered whether they should venture into the city and succumb to starvation, or yield to the Arameans and exchange their liberty for a final meal.
At dusk, they went to the camp of the Arameans and found that there was no one there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army. They feared that the Israelites had hired a mighty army such as the Hittites and the Egyptians to bolster their attacking prowess. So they fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents, horses, and donkeys. The lepers entered one of the tents, ate, drank, took silver, gold, and clothes, and hid them.
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.”
2 Kings 7:9 (NIV)
Even the social outcasts felt bad for not relaying the good news to the country. How much more is the urgency for broadcasting the ultimate good news to the people of the famine-stricken earth. Let us not be selfish and hoard the gospel of Christ like it is our plunder from the battlefield. Instead, we should allow the Holy Spirit to help us proclaim the message of God to those who need it.
So the lepers went back to Samaria and called the city gatekeepers to tell them about what they had seen. They recounted all that they found and the gatekeepers relayed the news to the king’s palace. What the LORD had told through His prophet Elisha had come to pass but the king was petulant and refused to believe that God had intervened and delivered Israel.
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.’
2 Kings 7:12 (NIV)
The king held the belief that the Arameans were using the vacant campsite as a ploy to lure out the Israelites. From the king’s standpoint, exercising caution seemed reasonable, however, the LORD had explicitly foretold what would transpire. Failing to acknowledge our own shortcomings even in the face of God’s prophecies amounts to foolishness on our part. Joram was reluctant to trust or attribute the deliverance of the land to Elisha and his God. Now the reason why he wore sackcloth underneath his royal robe becomes even more clearer.
It was at the suggestion of one of his commanding officers that the king dispatched men to confirm the account of the lepers, as it held the potential to solve their problems. Reluctantly, the king sent men to the Aramean camp and to their astonishment, the accounts of the lepers were affirmed by what they found, prompting the people to go out and pillage the Aramean camp. Subsequently, a seah of the finest flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley were sold for a shekel, just as the LORD had foretold.
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.
2 Kings 7:17 (NIV)
Similar to the king and his accompanying officer, we often find ourselves doubting that God will deliver us from our troubles. Even when things seem to be improving, we hesitate to acknowledge God’s intervention, fearing that we may inadvertently jinx something and bring about misfortune on ourselves. Perhaps it was their animosity toward Elisha that led them to question the words spoken by God through him. In a similar manner, we tend to evaluate the messenger of God’s word before deciding whether to accept or reject it. We may readily accept the message if it comes from someone we like, but we are sceptical when God speaks through someone we do not condone. We find ourselves bound by our own accumulated fears, hesitant to believe in the deliverance that only God can provide.
Discussion Questions
- Why did the king hide the fact that he was wearing sackcloth?
- Why did the king blame Elisha for the famine that plagued his kingdom?
- How often do we echo the king’s sentiment that the disaster that is upon us is from the LORD and subsequently make rash decisions?
- The king thought that the Arameans were using the empty campsite as a lure to draw out the Israelites, Is it justified for him to think this way?
- Do we doubt God’s deliverance from our troubles?
The Jordan Valley 
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