4 Lepers 3 Questions

4 Lepers 3 Questions

In the Bible, the book of II Kings, chapters six and seven a remarkable story about God’s leading and protection takes place 800 years before the life of Jesus Christ.

Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire 100,000 strong army and marched and laid siege to Samaria. The city was surrounded and resulted in a great famine.  People were dying and cannibalism was reported.

Four lepers lived outside the city in a lepers colony.  They existed on scraps of food and their supply stopped.  Knowing they could not get into the city and would die there anyway ~ and they would die where they were.  Imagine them asking, “why am I alive?”  Consider their discussion about what was next; "what should we do?"

They decided to shuffle to the enemy camp and ask for mercy, they had nothing to loose.  It was only about a mile away and suppose it took them an hour.  When they arrived no one was there.  They had fled because the Lord had caused them to hear a great army approaching and they ran.  They left everything, food, clothing, gold, silver, animals, everything.  The four lepers were amazed and feasted and hid some of the valuables for their benefit.  

Then imagine one of them asking, “why are we doing this?”  The second question we observe is, “why do I have what I have?”  This is the same question we have today.  Why do I have what I have?  We have a garage sale to get rid of the things we no longer want or need ~ to replace them with yet other stuff that will someday end up in the garage for a future garage sale.  Why not consider giving unneeded things to someone who needs them?

That’s exactly what the lepers did.  They said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.”  They considered the condition of everyone in the city and returned and shared the good news.  The third take away question we need to ask ourselves is, “Where am I going?”  We will never know which one of the lepers posed that question, but he did and I am glad.  It changed history.    

We need to consider these same three questions; Why am I alive?  What do I have what I have?  Where am I going?  Pray to God and seek His leading as you consider how to live in the context of our day.  

Haggai 1:5-6
Now this is what the LORD almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”