Dale Ridge church of Christ

               During the reign of Jehoram (852-841 B.C.), son of King Ahab, the Bible tells us that Israel’s capital, Samaria, was under siege by the Syrians.  This siege brought about an extremely severe famine among those walled up in the city (2 Kings 6:25).   Hope gave way to doom and gloom among the majority of the inhabitants.  The king of Israel himself also caved in to a mindset of despair (2 Kings 6:26-30).  Defeat and total loss had set into the hearts of all in the city; that is, all but the prophet Elisha and his close companions.

                While turmoil and desperation loomed in the city on the outside, inside Elisha’s home, he and his companions sat resolute and confident (2 Kings 6:32).  After a failed attempt on his life by Jehoram, Elisha made an incredible 24-hour prediction.  He said to the king that within a day, all would be changed.  Who could have ever believed it?  Yet, this was spoken by a prophet of God.  All the gloom was soon to turn quickly to glory—but how?  This came about in one of the most amazing ways.

                This account involves four lepers who become the heroes and some frightening sounds of an unseen, ancient army.  As the siege had come down to its final hour, four lepers at the gate in Samaria took a last ditch effort to give themselves over to the Syrians.  No one else in Samaria could help them, and they reasoned that their only hope would be that the Syrians might help them.   They said, “. . . let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:  if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die” (2 Kngs. 7:4b).

                As they made their way to the Syrian encampment, they found the most amazing thing—the Syrian camp was all intact, but no one was there (2 Kings 7:5).  Where did the Syrians go?  The Lord frightened them with the sounds of chariots, horses, and a great host (2 Kings 7:6).  They fled in fright leaving a path of treasures all the way from their camp to the Jordan (2 Kings 7:7; 2 Kings 7:14-15).  The prophet’s words came to pass, and the gloom and despair were gone within a day (2 Kings 7:18-19).

                Hope is such an important message in the Bible.  The hope God desires of us is a confident, assured expectation based upon faith (Hebrews 6:19).  

•  We are to have hope in the final resurrection (Acts 23:6; Acts 24:15; Titus 3:7).
• It is to be a hope that cause us to rejoice (Romans 5:2; Romans 12:12) which is strengthened through growth in adversity (Romans 5:4) and which will one day be ultimately realized (Romans 5:5). 
• Hope is that by which we are saved (Romans 8:24).
• It is that which increases in us by those things which have been written aforetime as is seen in the just mentioned account in the ministry of Elisha (Romans 15:4). 
• It is part of the nature of God whose desire is that we abound in his hope (Romans 15:13).
• It is a hope that thankfully goes beyond anything in this world (1 Corinthians 15:19; Colossians 1:5; Titus 1:2).
•  It is a hope in which we need to be settled and grounded (Colossians 1:23) and to which we are to hold fast (Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews 6:11).
•  It is that for which we are to be looking (Titus 2:13).
• It is that which we are to give to others (1 Peter 3:15).

                As was the account of Elisha in Samaria and the victory he experienced by holding fast to hope, we too must trust in hope even in the face of all hopelessness that we might gain the victory.   The apostle Peter exhorts “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

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Filed under: Devotional, Michael Carter on November 3rd, 2008