What happens when a famine hits? All your resources dry up. That which you depended on for sustainence is gone. Despair and depression set in. Hope is fading. Your mind goes absolutely crazy trying to figure out why and how and when and what! Your security is gone.
Four lepers knew what I am talking about. In 2 Kings 7, there is a story about four lepers who lived through seven years of famine. Questions must have circled in their brain: What are we going to do? Where are we going to go? How are we going to make it? Does God care? Is God even alive?
A famine is bad enough for normal people. But lepers feed off of the leftovers and scraps of normal people. If the normal people don’t have anything, what do lepers do?
A famine is a great place for God to demonstrate his greatness. Understand that the lepers were in a famine.
2 Kings 7:3-9 (MsgB)
It happened that four lepers were sitting just outside the city gate. They said to one another, “What are we doing sitting here at death’s door? [4] If we enter the famine-struck city we’ll die; if we stay here we’ll die. So let’s take our chances in the camp of Aram(the Syrians) and throw ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we’ll live, if they kill us we’ll die. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
[5] So after the sun went down they got up and went to the camp of Aram. When they got to the edge of the camp, surprise! Not a man in the camp! [6] God had made the army of Aram hear the sound of horses and a mighty army on the march. They told one another, “The king of Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!” [7] Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning tents, horses, donkeys—the whole camp just as it was—running for dear life. [8] These four lepers entered the camp and went into a tent. First they ate and drank. Then they grabbed silver, gold, and clothing, and went off and hid it. They came back, entered another tent, and looted it, again hiding their plunder.
[9] Finally they said to one another, “We shouldn’t be doing this! This is a day of good news and we’re making it into a private party! If we wait around until morning we’ll get caught and punished. Come on! Let’s go tell the news to the king’s palace!”
God did a miracle. It involved timing, power, and preservation. The only thing that the lepers brought to the table was desperation and surrender! In one moment of time, the lepers went from famine to feasting! God in his awesome power not only changed their situation, He also gave them the privilege of feeding the king, his household and the city!
Next time you are in a famine, just remember God can change your situation overnight. This is not the ‘prosperity gospel’. This is just God being God! Just throw your desperation at the feet of God and surrender to His timing and to His mercy.