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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 6 October 2025:
2 Kings 7:1-2 — But 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.” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
Samaria was under siege, famine so severe that people resorted to cannibalism (2 Kings 6:28-29). Into this hopeless situation, Elisha declared God’s word of sudden, abundant provision. God delights to show His power where human resources are exhausted. He made water spring in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6), fed Israel with manna (Exodus 16:15), multiplied oil for the widow (2 Kings 4:6), and fed thousands with a few loaves through Jesus (Matthew 14:19-21).
The captain’s response represents unbelief that limits God to human logic. He mocked God’s promise, saying that even if heaven had windows, such provision was impossible. Yet God Himself says, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:14). The captain would see God’s power but not taste it — unbelief can exclude one from the blessings of God’s promises. Hebrews 3:19 warns that Israel could not enter God’s rest “because of unbelief.”
Faith is the doorway to experience God’s provision. By stepping out in faith, we enter into the provision. Doubt shuts us out. Jesus said to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40). Jesus also said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)
2 Kings 7:3-4 — Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”
God chose lepers, the despised and outcast, to be the first recipients of His deliverance. He often uses those the world overlooks. Gideon was the least of his clan (Judges 6:15). David was the youngest shepherd boy (1 Samuel 16:11-12). The disciples were fishermen and tax collectors (Matthew 4:18-22). Paul wrote, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
The lepers’ reasoning was simple: every option meant death except risking everything by going forward. Faith often begins at desperation. They could not save themselves, but their willingness to move aligned them with God’s miraculous plan. This mirrors the gospel: we are spiritually bankrupt, without hope in ourselves, but if we step toward Christ in faith, we find life.
2 Kings 7:5-7 — So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives.
God scattered a powerful army without Israel lifting a sword. He caused the Syrians to hear phantom armies. Again, God works in ways impossible for man. God’s activities are always explained away by man too. Today, in a society which has written the knowledge of God out of all systems of professional knowledge, this would have been deemed some sort of mass hysteria, perhaps induced by alcohol and poor leadership and discipline. Psalm 68:1 declares, “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered.”
Victory belongs to the Lord. Israel had no strength, no food, and no plan, but God delivered them with a whisper of sound. This demonstrates Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
2 Kings 7:8, 9 — And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them. Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.”
The lepers first satisfied their own hunger and secured treasure, but then conviction struck them. They realized that hoarding salvation in a day of deliverance is wrong. This echoes our call as believers. We have the treasure of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:7). To keep silent while others perish is sin. Like the lepers, we must share the good news.
Paul declared, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Jesus said, “Freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). Evangelism flows from gratitude — when we have tasted God’s mercy, we cannot keep silent.
The lepers understood that it would be a terrible sin, totally unloving, deserving of great punishment, to withhold the good news of salvation even for one day. Though they were tempted to simply enjoy their new riches, keeping them to themselves, they knew that countless others were doomed without what they had. So, they proclaimed this good news to the people who, at first, doubted. However, more “messengers” confirmed the good news, and soon multitudes rushed to receive miraculous and previously unimaginable blessings from the Lord.
What would happen if all Christians today were as convicted as these lepers to share the “good news” to those who are perishing, the Good News of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? What will you do with the Good News and the unsearchable riches you have received in Christ? Will you hide them or “go and tell.”? You were once destitute and doomed; now that you are rich in Christ beyond measure with eternal reward, share those riches with others. What sort of person would you be if you didn’t?
- Ephesians 1:7 — In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace….
- Ephesians 2:7 — …so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
- Ephesians 3:8 — To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ….
- Colossians 1:27 — To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
“We are not doing right…. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us.” Are you doing right with the salvation you have received through Jesus Christ? Do you feel a great sense of urgency to share the Good News with others and not wait another day?
- Acts 20:24 — But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
2 Kings 7:10-11 — So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were.” Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king’s household.
The testimony of lepers, those normally disregarded, was the first announcement of God’s victory. Similarly, shepherds were the first to proclaim Christ’s birth (Luke 2:17-18), and women were the first witnesses of His resurrection (Luke 24:10). God delights in using unlikely messengers to confound the wise.
2 Kings 7:12-15 — And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see.” So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
The king was suspicious, expecting a trap. Faithless hearts often explain away God’s work with human logic. On the other hand, the Bible warns: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) In this case, one servant suggested testing the report. Faith, even in seed form, moves to action. “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8). Their investigation confirmed God’s deliverance.
2 Kings 7:16 — Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.
God’s word through Elisha was fulfilled exactly. Not one promise of God fails (Joshua 21:45, Matthew 24:35). What seemed impossible one day was reality the next. God’s word stands above famine, siege, and unbelief.
A shekel represented roughly a laborer’s day’s wage, and a seah was a large measure of grain, somewhere between 2.5 and 7 gallons. The point here is that what had been unimaginably scarce the day before was suddenly made so abundant that it became cheap. The famine had driven people to desperation, to cannibalism (2 Kings 6:28-29), because when resources are scarce, people turn against one another in fear, self-preservation, and despair. But when God intervenes, He can turn famine into feasting overnight. His word always proves true.
This sudden shift is a picture of the grace of God in Christ. Where sin once held us in famine of soul, starving and striving, Christ has brought abundance. Paul writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). When we realize the riches of God’s current provision and our inheritance in Him (Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 1:18), fear of loss no longer rules our hearts. We can forgive freely because we’ve been forgiven immeasurably (Colossians 3:13). We can give generously because our cup overflows (Psalm 23:5).
- Romans 8:31-39 — What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
On the other hand, when we lose sight of our abundance in Christ, we fall back into famine thinking. We hoard, fight, and protect what little we think we have. James describes the bitter fruit of this mindset: “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:2). But Jesus shows us another way. On the night He was betrayed, He washed Judas’ feet (John 13:5). Why? John tells us: because “Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God” (John 13:3). He knew He had nothing to lose. He was secure in the Father’s love and invincible under the Father’s protection. Therefore, He could stoop low, even before His betrayer, because His perspective was eternal and His heart was full.
This is the freedom of abundance in Christ. When we know we are rich in Him, we no longer live in the poverty of self-preservation. We stop acting insecure like the world around us, because our identity is secure in Christ. We no longer view others as threats to our survival but as objects of God’s love, as captives Christ came to set free. In famine, everyone fights for crumbs; in abundance, everyone eats and rejoices together. The gospel transforms us from famine-hoarders to feast-sharers.
2 Kings 7:17-20 — Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” the captain had answered the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.
Unbelief always carries consequences. The captain saw the fulfillment but was excluded from enjoying it. Just as the Israelites who grumbled in the wilderness saw the Promised Land but perished before entering (Numbers 14:22-23), so this man’s cynicism cost him life. Jesus warned, “If you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Seeing is not enough — faith must be embraced.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 6 October 2025: This chapter teaches that God is faithful to His word, even when circumstances seem hopeless. He can turn famine into feasting overnight. The question is whether we will believe His promises or mock them. Faith moves us to act like the lepers — stepping humble forward in faith and hope, then proclaiming the good news to others. Unbelief may see God’s work but miss its blessings; faith both sees and tastes.
Pray: “Lord, when my circumstances look impossible, teach me to trust Your word above what I see. Deliver me from the unbelief that mocks Your promises. Give me the courage of the lepers, who risked everything and found life. And make me faithful to share the good news with others instead of hoarding Your blessings. Let me taste and see Your goodness today, and help me walk in confident trust that nothing is too hard for You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
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