2 Kings 6:24-7:2 (New King James Version) emphasis mine

Syria Besieges Samaria in Famine

   
24 And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
27 And he said, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?” 28 Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body. 31 Then he said, “God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!”
32 But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” 33 And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, coming down to him; and then the king said, “Surely this calamity is from the LORD; why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

2 Kings 7

 1 Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’”
2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”
And he said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

Here we have Gods people, once again, in a famine A severe famine. So much so, that food was so scarce, they turned to cannibalism to sustain life! In fact they resorted to eating their own children. Now that is pretty bad. Can you imagine being that desperate for food that you would be willing to eat another human being, let alone your own son, just to stay alive? That my friends is a pretty desperate situation. This was no mere drought. This was not just any famine. It was a life and death “severe” famine in the land!

Anxiety had gripped the Israelites. Food was so scarce and the “depression” so bad that a quarter of a kab {¼ of a pint}}of dove dung sold for five shekels of silver. That is what I would call run away inflation!

We think things are so bad now. With the current economic crisis we are in? Can you imagine? Even during the great depression I know of no told stories where American’s resorted to cannibalism to sustain life!

But desperate times call for desperate measures sometimes right?

Wasn’t the King somewhat justified in his thinking when he said “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

After all…enough is enough. It is time to take matters into our hands. Why not start with taking the head of Elisha the prophet, who led us to Samaria, “this God forsaken land,” in the first place! Isn’t that what so often happens when we are faced with difficult times in our lives. We start “head hunting” for who to blame it on! We start to get anxious and we begin to think irrationally and wild imaginations capture our minds and pretty soon, if we are not careful, we begin to act on these wrongful thoughts and find ourselves doing the unimaginable! Complete and utter panic to the point we where we are capable of most anything.

It is what we do in our own strength, left to our own devises, when faced with “severe famines” in our own lives. In our own land.

We are seeing it in our government right now. Things are tough. Times are difficult, so many in our government say let’s take matters into our own hands and spend billions even trillions of dollars {that we don’t even have} to “stimulate” the economy. To “fix” the problem. Let’s blame it on the past administration and rationalize our behavior of reckless spending. After all it was not our fault “it was inherited.” So why wait? “It will take to long to get better”.. “We cannot afford to wait.” We here it all the time, don’t we?

That is precisely what the king of Israel had faced but in an even more desperate situation. His was no “recession.” It was a severe famine!

But….Why are there always some like Elisha, who are not panicked and resorting to such desperate measures as “head hunting and cannibalism,” to survive the same severe drought as the others are? What separated him from all the others, so much so that the elders of the Israelites were coming to him for counsel instead of the King and his court? What made his character so steadfast that even in the midst of incredible hardship he had peace and confidence that everything was going to be OK?

Answer? 2Kings7:2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, “Look, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”

Elisha was different because he was a man of God!

And when faced with adversity men of God, who know His Word, have their roots of faith grounded in Him. To the point that no matter what calamity faces them, even death itself, their peace and confidence is in their God and that is what makes them unmistakably different from men who are left to trust their own devises!

Two different types of leaders.{1] Leaders who know and trust God.{2} Leaders who do not know and trust God. The ones that do are unshaken. The ones who do not take matters into their own hands and often times cause more harm than good!

In part one of “Surviving the famine in your life” the first lesson we learned from Abram was {1} making good practical decisions to get help from where help was being offered when faced with a famine in our life. I see no evidence of the King of Israel trying to get help from any other source. As a matter of fact when he was asked by the woman for help ….. he said, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?”

What was he really saying? He was blaming God. I believe he was so angry that Elisha was getting all the attention from the elders and that in his own power and wisdom he couldn’t come up with a solution to the problem. So he blamed God. We see proof of that in that he to was mourning in sackcloth.

What a king! He wasn’t much of a leader now was he? One of his own was crying out for help and he was to busy having his own pity party to even try and find help for her, let alone the rest of his people. That is exactly why I believe the elders were sitting with Elisha, because he was the true leader of the Israelites, not the king!

No matter who is “officially in charge”, when push comes to shove the true leader will rise to the top! Elisha had the character that was needed to help the Israelites through this severe famine.

The king was different. When faced with adversity he became a “head hunter”.Resorting to blame and even threats of murder much like the woman who boiled her own son! The king knew, however, that this famine was from God {he said it!}and that really disturbed him, to the point that he was going to do something about it! Why was he so disturbed? Because he was king and he could not do anything about it {the famine}. That by the way friends is the heavy burden of leadership. Seeing a terrible situation you and your followers are facing and not being able to do anything about it! For that I empathize with the king. And I know that is partly why he was in mourning. But…instead of seeking God like Elisha, he took matters into his own hands. He refused to “wait upon the Lord any longer!” After all it was God who who brought them there in the first place so why trust in Him to get them out of the mess? It is easy to rationalize his behavior.. Isn’t it?

Well my friends I must confess that at times in my life I to have been the king! When faced with adversity I must confess that I too have taken matters into my own hands and acted just like the king. Is it not amazing how we can blame others so easily for what has come upon us and to rationalize our poor decisions and wrongful behavior? There have been many, many times even as a believer, where I have not waited upon on Lord to bring “us” out of the famine and made rash decisions that hurt not only me but my family and others in my circle of influence. Forgive me even now Oh Lord!

Yes we have here two different types of leaders. One who trusted in the strength of men and another who trusted only in the Lord and in His might!

Elisha sought the Lord and the Lord heard him, and delivered him and his people out of the famine! That is the difference between Elisha, the man of God and the king of Israel who walked not by faith but by sight!

Which one are you? Are you a man or woman of God? Or do you trust in your own abilities or in the strength of others {government} when faced with difficulties or famines in your life?

Are you like the woman who boiled even her own son to feed her belly {and listened to others} or are you like Elisha who prayed and sought the Lord to bring him through the famine?

In this fast paced world we live in today life is traveling by at an amazing speed. Warp speed. We are busier than ever trying to keep pace with all the world has to offer. We get up in the morning and drink our cup of “Jo” to get us going. We say a quick prayer, hurry to the bathroom, five minute shower, make a quick breakfast drink while we watch Fox or CNN to get all the worlds news in a matter of seconds. As a matter of fact we get several sources of news on one screen now! Streaming video, the crawl news along the bottom of the screen, breaking news flashes and the reporter along with several others on their own little boxes all on the same screen. We cannot seem to get what we want fast enough. Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! Life is traveling at warp speed and it gets faster and faster, every day!

In this fast paced world we live in we do not “have time” for a recession. We do not “have time” for a slow down in our economy. Much less a severe famine in our lives now do we? We want prosperity and ease at any cost. After all we are America and we deserve nothing less. We want what we want and we want it now!

Why …when many in our country are faced with the same challenges and difficulties as others, are some willing to “sell” their own souls to “gain” the riches of the world and there are others who would rather suffer and wait upon the Lord? Why is it that some even in the church are willing to compromise their morals, their faith even their deeply held religious convictions for the sake of not having to deal with some adversity?

History is the great teacher. Like it or not every culture, every nation, every empire has had it’s share of “famines”.So…. by the way has every other human being for that matter. Life is full of famines! You do not believe me? Show me one single person who has not had struggles, difficulties in their lives? Well? You can’t think of one can you? No matter who it is we all have struggles and famines in our lives!

Why then, if life is so short and time goes by so quickly, does Gods Word so often advise us to “wait on the Lord”.

Isaiah 40:31
But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint

Why? Because He wants to provide for us. He is sovereign. He is in complete control. He often causes the famines in our lives to teach us to trust Him and for many other character building reasons! And even in the midst of the calamity God continues to provide all of our needs. Our problem is it is what we want that matters to us, not what we need! What we need is food, shelter and clothing in the physical….and Love, Joy and Peace in the Spiritual. What we want is more stuff, and it is the accumulation of more stuff that robs us of our joy and peace and takes us away from what we need and that is our daily walk with Him! God knows what we need. And He promises that if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness that He will provide all these things to us!

Was it not God who led them to Samaria. Will then not the same God provide for them while they are there?

In this “financial famine” we are in right now and I say that with some reservations {because most Americans don’t even know what it is to really be in want} what we want is not to have to give up any of our things. We do not want to have any hiccups in our financial plans. We do not want to have to change our level of comfort one iota! We do not have time for a recession and God forbid that we in America may have to struggle a little bit. We cannot afford to wait! So let’s take matters into our own hands and spend trillions of dollars trying to stop the famine that God created or allowed. It is futile war against a living God! And the end result will be far worse than the beginning.

Truth of the matter is {and I know there will be thousands even in the church who will not like this} we in America are a materialistic, self centered, self righteous group who think we deserve more and better than the rest of the world. We want all that the “world” has to offer and more than what God says we need!

But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

But….those who wait on the Lord…..shall renew their strength! Only those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. Why? Because only they have learned the lesson of the adversity. And as a result have gained strength. All the others who have taken matters into their own hands and have placed their demands on the altar of “the self deserving” will exit the famine weak and even more in want.

“Can we really afford to wait?”

The answer is yes. As a matter of fact it is exactly what we need to do! The financial famine that we are in right now will to come to pass! This is not the first recession our nation has faced nor will it be the last. It may in fact and probably will get a whole lot worse before it gets better. But if we wait upon the Lord we will be strengthened. We will mount up with wings like eagles. Unfortunately there is a consequence when we take matters into our own hands as many in our government have done and the ramifications of that will be far reaching. But even in that hopefully they to will learn from their mistakes and not repeat the same mistakes in the future.

In closing there is one thing we cannot afford to wait on! Our decision to accept Gods plan for salvation.