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Share The
News!
They were four men whose plight no one would envy. Each had the scourge
of leprosy and, consequently, had been ostracized from their fellow
citizens. Adding to their present misery was the fact that an enemy’s
army had surrounded their city and laid siege to it, attempting to
starve out the inhabitants. It was a terrible and unloving time -- a
critical time. Some in the city had even resorted to cannibalism.
Meanwhile, here sat these four starving lepers at the city’s entrance.
“Why are we sitting here until we die?” they asked each other.
That seemed a valid question, and the more they deliberated about the
matter, the more nonsensical their inactivity appeared. They reasoned
that were they to remain sitting outside the city -- or even to enter it
-- that such would eventually lead to starvation. But wait! There was
another option: “Let us surrender to the army… If they keep us alive, we
shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.” And so, these four
exiles proceeded to “come to the outskirts of the… camp,” and “to their
surprise no one was there.” (You see, the Lord had caused the enemy to
retreat and ‘run scared.’)
One can only begin to imagine the shocked look on the faces of
these men. They were so ecstatic that they gleefully went from tent to
tent, collecting the spoil, and hiding it. (The enemy had withdrawn in
such haste that they had left everything.) Oh how quickly the events had
turned. In just a few moments these four went from being the poorest men
in Israel to being the richest! How happy they must have been. Happy,
happy, happ-- UNTIL they came to themselves…
“Then they said to one another, “We are not doing what is
right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent… Come,
let us go and tell the king’s household.” Their thinking was, ‘How can
we keep quiet while our countrymen back in the city are starving?’ They
could not -- and thus the good news was shared, the hungering citizens
of Samaria were saved, and all became well. (The story is found in God’s
word, the Bible, in 2 Kings 7:13-16.)
Even a quick perusal of this account brings one to see many
similarities between these men’s story and our own. We, as were they,
are in dire straits. Our infirmity is not that of the flesh, however
(leprosy and physical hunger), but of the spirit (sin) -- a disease
which will destroy us eternally if gone unremedied (Romans 6:23). “Why
are we sitting here until we die?” should be our question as well. That
we must do something, there is no doubt (James 2:14-24)! If we venture
outside the sin-sick camp and look elsewhere for mercy, perhaps we might
find it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
Have you found mercy? “The Lord is very compassionate and
merciful” (James 5:11). If you have been mercifully saved from your sins
by the blood of Jesus, then certainly you can more than appreciate the
joyfulness and merriment of those four men. “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
But wait! What have you done with your ‘good news’? It has
been “the power of God to salvation” for you (Romans 1:16). What of
those others who are still in your former condition? The same news can
save them as well! Have you ‘gone back’ and shared the good news of the
gospel message with them?
People in this area -- right here in this town -- are dying daily
for lack of someone sharing the ‘good news’ with them. ARE WE “doing
right”? Or, rather, are we selfishly hiding the gospel treasure from
others?
Have you been hoarding God’s wealth? If so, repent. Make plans
now to share the gospel. Teach someone today!
--Mike Noble
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