When A Bold Step Is Needed

Good Day everyone,

Leprosy is highly contagious and in Bible times lepers were considered religiously unclean and outcasts in society. They were not allowed to attend religious events or mingle with the rest of the community. The story in 2 Kings chapter 7 narrates the scenario of four lepers who lived in Samaria during a historical famine that Israel experienced. 

The four lepers had been sitting at the gate of Samaria. It was rather unusual to have lepers sit at the gate! Gates were places of leadership and influence, and only the who's who in the society could sit there. This only meant that the rest of the people had deserted the city in search of safety, and lepers became new occupants of the city gates!

They were doubly in danger. Not only were they starving like the people of Israel, but being at the gate meant that they were more exposed to the enemy's attack. They were potentially the first target of the attacking army. They didn't have weapons, nor had they trained to fight, and worst of all, they were too weak to run for their lives if they were attacked.

They reached a point where they decided to make the most significant risk. They stepped out and went into the enemy's camp. This wasn't necessarily an act of faith. There is no evidence that they had even heard the word of Elisha as they were far from the rest of the people, but their determination and readiness to step out bore fruit. The survival instinct drove them. 

God honored their choice. It is so amazing that these fellows didn't step out in faith. They had to take the highest risk as they thought not taking that step was equally risky. As they stepped out of the city gate, God did something supernatural to scare off the Aramean's Army. God magnified the steps of the lepers, and the Aramean army that had invaded Israel thought it was a great army coming to attack them, and they fled, leaving all their stuff behind, including their horses!

Lepers got into their camp and realized no man was left there, but all their belongings were there.

That was a day of celebration- they ate and drank until they wanted no more, then they decided to tell the good news to Israel. They didn't go to the masses but to the palace, where they proclaimed the word of Elisha a day before this significant breakthrough! The King didn't believe that the Aramean army could have deserted their camp as he thought it was a trap against the army of Israel.

 God watches over his word to fulfill it! It just happened as he had spoken through his servant Elisha and all it took was the courage of the four lepers who chose to make the most significant risk. They were called the outcast, yet God used them to bring salvation to Israel at that particular time! Do we learn anything from these four men? Like them, we might need to risk the very thing we are afraid to lose, and we can do even better by choosing to look at God rather than the circumstances around us. We can take a step of faith and allow ourselves to be used by God to be a blessing to others!

Study Verses: Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” 2 Kings 7:3

Shalom! Peace be with you all!

Betty

Thanks for reading Kutoa Project’s Blog!

If you liked this blog post and want to read more, browse all blogs here.

If you have a prayer request, please send it to us. We pray weekly for each request.

Should you be interested in taking the next step in your faith journey, reach out to us and we will talk to you.