Good News, The Enemy Is Defeated

2 Kings 7:8-9---And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now, therefore, come, that we may go and tell the king's household.

The Arameans laid siege to the capital of Israel, Samaria. The people inside the city were slowly starving to death. Some of them even ate their own babies. The king of Israel became furious with the LORD and His prophet and determined to kill him. When he arrived at the room of the prophet Elisha, Elisha prophesied that the next day there would be an abundance of food. That was very hard to believe, but the king backed off. A group of lepers decided to go out to the Aramean camp. They decided that either way, they would die, and they might find mercy. When they arrived, the army was gone and all their goods were still there. They began to raid the tents, hiding the goods, until their conscience got to them. They knew they needed to tell the starving people of the city. The king of Israel thought it was a trap, so he sent a small group of chariots to see what had happened. They followed a trail of forsaken goods all the way to the Jordan River. The LORD had caused the sound of a great army to frighten the Arameans away. We are like those beggars when we come to Christ. We have lived in a land starving for truth. People are desperate. We found the answer in abundance and begin to stash away the truth in our hearts, hiding it there. Then our conscience gets to us. What about all the others, who are holed up in the city, slowly dying, waiting for someone to tell them the good news, "The enemy is defeated!"? We are not doing right by keeping this discovery to ourselves.