Afterward Ben-hadad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria. – 2 Kings 6:24
We take up our last story from the life of Elisha in Samaria. The tactic of a siege was to form a camp around the entire city. No one could go in, and no one could come out. So, it wasn’t long before food was in short supply.
And when supplies are low, prices go up. We are told: “a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels” (6:25). You’d have to be pretty desperate to want to eat a donkey’s head!
The king of Israel blamed Elisha for this crisis and he vowed to take his life: “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today” (6:31).
But God revealed to Elisha that the executioner was coming. He was in his house with the elders, when the king, the executioner, and the captain (the king’s chief adviser) arrived outside (6:32, 7:2).
While the door was being held shut, Elisha proclaimed: “Thus says the LORD, Tomorrow… a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria” (7:1). Notice, this was the Word of God. There will be plenty of food tomorrow!
When the king heard this, he postponed the execution. “An abundance of food tomorrow? Let’s wait and see.” But the captain wasn’t impressed. He thought Elisha was making this up to save his own skin.
He said, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” (7:2). The captain refused to believe. And Elisha said to him, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it” (7:2).
Have you ever trusted in God’s Word when it seemed unlikely? Are you refusing to believe something God has said in His Word right now?
