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Episode 618: In this episode, we delve into a powerful story from 2 Kings chapter 7, which features four lepers who find themselves in a dire situation. Exiled from their city due to their leprosy, they contemplate their bleak options: stay and die, return to the city and die, or surrender to the enemy and hope for mercy. Ultimately, they choose to take a risk and venture into the enemy camp, where they discover an abundance of food and riches left behind by the fleeing Aramean army.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, good morning or evening or afternoon, A good day, Yes, but we want to welcome you to the Bible Guys, and we have a riveting segment for you today. We're so glad you're with us. We really are. Yeah, that is true. It's true. It is what drives us to drive to the podcast studio and continue to make these podcasts. In a blizzard, it wasn't quite a blizzard, but it wasn't We got a couple inches of snow. Well, people think it's a blizzard. Anywhere else in the country. It's a blizzard. Yes, it'd shut down Atlanta and no doubt that's right, no doubt we got we got a nice two inch dusting. It's snowing in dustin Florida. I saw that. Yeah crazy Louisiana. Yeah, we have friends in Louisiana. They got eight inches of snow. Holy Christmas. She sent a message with my wife last night. Wow. Crazy. Yeah, that isn't neat. So congratulations everybody on your snow. Yeah global warming, yeah exactly. So Hey, this is one of our favorite segments, is it. Yeah, Well, it's it's the one that's the only one that has its own. See I see, yeah, which is mail bags. There you go, yep. And so mail bags is when basically anybody just simply writes in and then Desiree pretty much sifts through them and then decides to let us answer one of them. So, if you want to email us, please send us an email at info at the Bible guys dot com. That's right. We would love to hear from you with any question, comment, or anything else that we could use on our show. That's amazing, did I just say on our show, on our show, on our podcast. On our podcast. All right, So in mail bags, people will send a question. Yep. And today it's Sarah s Hey, Hi, Sarah s Hi. Sarah. It says this. She said. Recently, you guys were asked about a hobby you'd like to try, but I haven't yet. My question is, what's something you've tried to do but completely failed at basketball? Really? Yes, you're not good at basketball. I think I mentioned this before, But my older brothers, Chucky, Donnie, Tommy, they were into basketball. But when we were little, our older. Brothers, particularly Chucking Donnie, used to beat us up a lot, and we didn't like them. So there was a space between Tommy and between Tommy and Jimmy, so Jimmy and Chrissy, which is us. We rebelled against anything our older brothers did. So they grew up watching the Cleveland Browns games. Yep, so we didn't watch the Cleveland Browns games. They liked Star Trek together. We didn't like Star Trek. Right later on, I came around on that one. I came around on the Browns too, But basketball I just avoided. I just avoided because they loved it, and then we were like, no, we're not going to play it. I actually played my first driveway pick up basketball game in my life with friends. I was eighteen years old. Oh wow, isn't that crazy? So completely Yeah, didn't didn't touch it. So basketball is not your thing. So when I. Become a youth pastor, I thought, oh no, I need to learn. So I trained for months. I had a person show me the ropes, and so I practiced and practiced and practiced at our health club and went. Up and down the court, learned how to do a layup, learn. How to shoot and not very good, but still learned it until I when I've got to be decent at it, I decided I hate this game. I hate it. I was given court side seats for the Atlanta Hawks. Wow. My feet were literally on the court right and. I was sitting there watching the game, and about midway through the game, I'm like, I'm ready to go home, Like that's how much I don't even enjoy watching it. Wow. Here's another one. The Detroit Pistons wanted me to become their chaplain. And so I don't know how this might have been, like twenty thirteen or fourteen or fifteen, somewhere around there. I got a phone call and. I didn't even like you guys. Well, they called and said, would you consider being the chaplain for the Detroit Pistons. And so I had a choice. And I actually talked to my son, who with time, was in high school and said, Dad, you have to do this. This is great. We can get tickets and you know all the players, and you'd be able to hang out just like Dave Wilson does with the Lions. And I said, this is not fair to the Pistons. Like I literally loathe all basketball. Why would I why would I try to relate to people who I don't even like what they do for a living. So I said no because of it? Wow, So there, it is so basketball. But like, if the Detroit Opera House called and wanted you to be the chaplain for all their Broadway shows, that'd. Be very difficult. It would be difficult, but I would probably not have the time for that. First of all, I'd be busy. I'm not sure I would do that. So basket ball is your thing? Not your thing? You yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I tried and I completely fell out. For me, it's the DIY stuff. Okay, I am horrible at it and it makes me so frustrating because I loved basketball, love it. I'm terrible at it. I love it, love basketball, but DIY stuff. In my mind, I look at a thing and go, that'll be super easy, right, and the people that I know are really good at it. I think I should be good at it. Then other people get this stuff. You try and tell me he's better than me. I know, I know. I'm like, come on, man, this so I think I can do that, and I promise you now. My kids are like, Dad, put the tools down, right, It's just I don't know. I wind up making fifteen trips to home depot. I cut everything too short or too long. I never get it done. I start it, I can't finish it. What the concept in my mind does work out, but I have no fallback plan for another way. Almost all the time I have to invite somebody to come and help me. To the point where like, I'm horrible at painting for crying out loud. If I paint, we should tear up all the carpet and remove any cabinets or anything. I can paint like an empty room, but if there's anything in it, I'm going to ruin every bit of clothes. I'm gonna walk around paint on me for a week. It's just and I don't do it on purpose. It's that way about everything I do. I ruined tools. I look at this, see that scar? Yeah, I almost cut my finger off a saw. I was explaining to my son how not to use a saw when I cut my finger all the way to the bone. Wow. Right, it's just so I want to be a DIY guy. My wife wants me to be a DIY guy, and I'm just not. Wow. Yeah, I didn't grow up being a DIY person. My dad was not that way. But somewhere along the way I started to explore as a homeowner and just started diving into it. And I think I would classify myself as fairly decent. I would say I would say eighty five percent of all the projects around the house I do. If I was ever like super super rich, yeah, I would probably have. But single right, I'd probably have to live in a hotel Jesse, because I just I can't think somebody's gonna have to bring me stuff and fix stuff. And j that movie Two Week Notice with Hugh Grant and Center Bullock where he's a rich guy Wide Enterprises and he lives on the top of a hotel that he owns on the suite and he says. My life is very much like Monopoly. I don't want to be snooty. I just am completely inapt when it comes to maintenance. Yeah, that's terairrible. I want to be that guy. Well, thanks for bringing up misery, Sarah, Yeah, no kidding, just making us feel less than a. Recall with your audience. The things you're really the things you're really bad at. Right, a loser. Recall? No, No, I get it, Sarah, sometimes we talk like superheroes all the time, and so it's nice to know that we're not. Yes, well we don't do we talk like superheroes? Oh, I would imagine that is. I mean, you can dance. Stop it, you know the Bible stopt stop it. Yeah. First of all, I can't even really sing, and and I actually cannot dance at all. That's the other thing I just love. That's the other thing I can't. That's it. I like music. If she wants to know, here's the bonus material for that one. I can't dance neither. Yeah. Yeah, terrible. Okay, So speaking of not being able to dance, what levers d. Because their legs are gonna fall off. Because they have terrible transits. That may be the worst transition we've ever done. Oh no, it's hard to d. Wow, that's that's by far the worst transition. I think we may have just peaked. That's the best one we've ever had. Oh no. So anyways, if if you're a lepard and you're listening, we're not making fun. We're not laughing at you. We're laughing with you. All right, because I don't think we meant to. But I think terrible Yeah, okay, okay. Oh, I can't even see now, my eyes are full of te Okay. So in Second King's chapter seven, it says, now there were four men with leprosy sitting at the end truths of the City Gate. By the way, this is actually one of my favorite stories. Absolutely, I love this story. It's really great. You gave me an outline one time to preach. Oh yeah about this, Yes, oh, it's fantastic. Yeah yeah. Since why should we sit here waiting to die? They asked each other. We will starve if we stay here, but with the famine in the city, we'll starve if we go back there, so we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. And if they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we should have died anyway. So at twilight they set out for the camp of the Arameans. But when they came to the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Aramean army to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses, and the sounds of a great army approaching. The King of Israel has hired the Hittites and the Egyptians to attack us, they cried to one another. So they panicked and ran into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else as they fled for their lives. When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine, and they carried off so over in gold and clothing and hit it. Finally, they said to each other, this is not right. This is a day of good news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone. If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace. And so they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened. We went out to the air man camp, they said, and no one was there. The horses and donkeys were tethered, and the tents were all in order, but there wasn't a single person around. Then the gatekeeper shouted the news to the people in the palace. The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, I know what has happened. The air Mans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They're expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city. One of his officers replied, we'd better send out scouts to check this out. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it will be no worse than if they stay here and die with the rest of us. So two chariots with horses were prepared. The king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the air Maans had thrown away, and their mad rushed to the escape. The scouts returned to the king about The scouts returned and told the king about it. Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plunder the Aramean camp. So it was true that five courts of choice flower were sold that day for one piece of silver, and ten courts of barley grain were sold for one piece of silver, just as the lord had promised. The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the Man of God had predicted. When the king came to his house, the man of God had said, to the king, by this time tomorrow, and the market is the sama of five courts a choice flower becausts one piece of silver, and ten courts of barley of grain will cost one piece of silver. King's officer had replied, that couldn't happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven, And the Man of God had said, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you won't be able to eat any of it. So it was for the people trampled into death at the gate. Wow. Yeah, so you have it there, you go, of all, how desperate and starving and close to death do you have to be to trample the king and not even have any consistent. This was the king's officer. They got trampled to death. Oh, the king's officer. Okay, but still, I mean, you know, my guess is several months before that they would have feared the king's officer. Right, and now they're just plowing right over. Yeah yeah, yeah, and okay, so this is just an unbelievable way to start a story. It says, four lepers are sitting outside the entrance to the city gates. Well, first of all, if you are in a city or in. Any community in those days and you had leprosy, you were exiled from the city, right. And so oftentimes lepers were outside of the city gates as beggars, right. And so do you remember in the New Testament when when the lepers were in the caves and they shadowed out, Oh, son of David, have mercy on us. And so they were often that way. They were sort of excommunicated, and you know, leprosy was contagious. And so these four lepers are sitting outside. They were banned by law from being inside or around people or touching other people. Yes, and so that's why they're there. And then and they basically contemplate their options, and they come up with three really bad options. They said, Hey, let's go surrender to the what do they call the Armenians, Amians. Let's go strender to them, because we have three bad options. Either number one, we just sit here and just die. Number two, we go into the city and we die. Or number three, we go to them and we surrender and we might die, or the only chance is maybe they'll feed us, maybe they'll maybe they'll take us as prisoners. Right, so they're considering three really bad options, but the third option has the only glimmer of hope, and so then they they then they they're the ones. And I love this because they discovered this hidden treasure. So can you even imagine the desperation of like the walls of Samaria that are shut up? And you know, besieging a city was a strategy and it's still a strategy today. Strategy today, Right, you just surround the city and you stop all the export and all the import of a city so that they only have finite resources, and then you just wait it out then, And because you're supposed to wait it out, consequently, that means that the people besieging have to have supplies to outweight the people inside the city, right, which means that they have a ton of supplies. They have basically brought their whole kingdom around the city just to capture the city. And so you can't even we can't even imagine the amount of goods and sheep and horses and food and money and commerce and clothing and tents, and I mean. It would have been incomprehensible for four lepers to show up and all this stuff there. Yes, so God scares off all the airmans. Yes, they all take off, they run. These lepers show up and go where is everybody? Right? So can you imagine the amount of wealth and food and everything else? And so uh so there's only four of them, and uh and so as you can imagine, uh, you know, they're eating to their hearts content, they're sleeping, they're enjoying riches and jewels and crowns. You went into one ten after another, eating and drinking wine. They carried off silver and gold and clothing. And yes, yes, and they're they're they're burying it, right, they're burying it. Did you ever when you were a little kid, do you ever have kind of fantasy getting locked in the mall overnight? I don't think I've ever thought of that specifically. I used to think about that, How cool would it be to get locked in this mall and then just have free reign of everything in this mall all night long? Yeah? Yeah, right right, that's kind of the. Yeah, you know, the End of the World movies are like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the zombie movies got everything, they're trapped in them all. Yeah. But anyway, Uh, the point, the point is, so, by the way, that isn't that a typical response. You're using your imagination. I'm referring to a movie. Well, I grew up with books and you grew up with the movies. That's right, that's right. So anyway, the point is is that there's this realization, there's this coming to themselves moment where they say, we're not doing what is right. This is not right. We have good news that needs to be. Shared, and we're not sharing it. We're not sharing it because there's literally a whole city of people who. Are not us. There are other people, right, and they're the people that you know, outcast us from the city. They are the people that didn't let us in, right, But they are also the people that they beg from, and I'm sure that they received things from. So in other words, what I'm saying is is that they had compassion on people even though they were excommunity from the city, and they said, these people deserve to hear this good news. And so the outline that I wrote for you was about evangelism. It was about sharing the good news of Christ, because you know, there are people around the world that don't know yet the name of Jesus. They don't know that Jesus died for them on the cross and rose again from them to pay their sins. There are people around the world that don't know that God loves them radically, not because of the hoops they jump through, but in spite of their sins. And so you know, we, just like the four Lepers, have this wealth of knowledge. We have this great information and just this revelation that they have. They come to themselves and say, we are not doing what is right. We have this great store of wealth and life literally life literally right like food, water, it's life. And so we need to go back to the city and. We need to share this good news so that they can enjoy and have the benefits of life. And that's us. We have the good news of Christ, right, and so we need to go back and we need to tell as many people as we can about this good news that we have this wealth of life. You told me a joke about these guys that they had a band, these lepers, they had a band called Footloose. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness, Wow. I just pulled up the notes from that it is, Oh, this is this is this is this is part of the message. Where did you find this? Yeah, this was years ago. How did you. Find I had it in my in my documents. So the notes that you sent me were Uh, is this the one that you sent me? Or is this one I edited? So so you send me Yeah, you send me things and then I make them better? So where is that? That's the pattern? Yeah, yeah, what is the what is the point of who were the only people that could share the good news? Only the ones who had experienced it themselves? And then our temptation is to bask in the awesome reality of who God is and forget the people and places you've left behind. And then so the truth is, with great great discovery comes great responsibilit Oh, little spider Man, isn't that amazing? Yeah? Why can't we just leave let everyone believe what they believe and not bother anyone with evangelism? Right, because with great responsibility or great discovery, comes great responsibility. Yeah, isn't it great? That's great? That's good stuff, buddy. Yeah, and uh and uh and yeah, that really is the question, isn't it? The question is you know, people think that often they think, why do Christians you know, why don't they just leave everybody alone? Yeah, like why do they have to invade? You know? And in history, why do they have to you know, bother and bring up things? And you know, just isn't religion a personal thing? Isn't it? Isn't it something you should decide for yourself, Like stop talking about it, stop bothering people, and and uh, but that's not what the Great Commission tells us because Christianity is not intuitive, right, Like, you can't just you can sit under a tree and probably derive that that there is a god, maybe a creator, uh. You know, but the only way for you to. Understand that there is a point in history, that that there was a man God named Jesus who died for your sins, rose from the grave and offers that as a as a way to heaven. Christianity's grounded in history. It's an event, and the only way for history to be shared or to be known is to be shared. And so and so we are called to share the good news. And it's an event. It's a piece of information that happened. And so that's why God tells us that you know you have to share this with other people because it's it's it's. The way to heaven, it's the way to God, our Father. And so the reason why we can't just let everybody believe what they want to believe is because God loves the world. Yeah, well, here's what you wrote. You wrote. Do you remember how it was when out of desperation you came stumbling in and discovered all the riches of God's grace freely available to you. Do you remember what it was like before you met Jesus. You had deep belonging in your heart. You knew something wasn't right. You pursued great things and finally achieved them or acquired them, and were struck that there must be more to life than this. Maybe on the inside you were content, but on the outside there was chaos that heightened your spiritual awareness. Or maybe on the outside your life seemed perfect, but on the inside you were hungry and thirsty for something that you couldn't even put your finger on, and it wasn't going away. You did that unusual thing, You ventured out into the unknown, your desperation outpaced your pride. You opened your Bible, or you accepted that invitation to come to a Christmas or Easter service. You were so desperate. I don't know if it's going to work, but I just can't let things go on the way things are. And then you had that aha moment when you discovered you needed a savior, and you asked him to forgive your sins and come into your life as your lord, and put your faith and trust in him. And suddenly it became real, and it became alive, and you were surrounded by the treasures of God's grace and you wanted to experience them all for yourself. Do you remember that your friends and family couldn't believe it. New friends, new faces, and the way you did business was new morality. Slowly, not immediately, your life began to change. It wasn't just a religious experience. It was a discovery that changed your life. So let's repeat the question. Who were the only people that could share the good news? Only the ones who had experienced it themselves. That's what you wrote. Yeah, well, guess what? That great? Guess what now that you've read that, I'm recalling in my mind, I'd like to take credit for that. Yeah, I think that's an Andy Stanley thought. Oh, this whole piece here. Yeah, it's fabulous. Ye, it's fabulous. It's so good. Yeah, yep. So anyways, in that context, man, this is what that to me speaks to, Yeah, is well, one turns out what God says is going to happen is going to happen. Yeah, And so sure enough, you know, they did just get overwhelmed with tons of food and the guy didn't get to eat any of it. That was part of that because you know why, it is because he says that couldn't happen even if the Lord opened the windows of heaven, and guy goes, oh, watch me, right, So there's that. But I love the fact that these four lepers who would were total outcasts. Nobody in that city would show them respect. They had to shout out that they were a leper if somebody was coming down the street, and they were required to cross to the other side of the street to avoid being around respect people. They were the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of society, and yet they're gorging themselves and having this massive, beyond comprehension party and suddenly they go, hey, this isn't right. We need to go tell everybody else. And so somehow God gave them compassion when almost nobody would show compassion to them. Yeah, and they go back in and change the lives of all these desperate people. And that's our opportunity. So the phrase that I used in the message is we are just a bunch of beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. That's right. That's the thing that's right. And by the way, when you were reading that, maybe there's a listener out there that relates to that and says, yeah, that's me. You know, like that, I feel like something is missing in your life. Just know that you know, God's grace and God's salvation is available to everybody. And that's the wealth and the treasure of good news. That Jesus Christ came into the world to die for sinners just like. You, and and that we can't earn ourselves to Heaven earn our way, but it. Simply comes by believing that Jesus loves you and died and paid for your sins. Yeah. The Bible says in Romans chapter ten, the believe that Jesus is who he says, he is right, that he did what he would said he would do, that he rose again paid the price for your sin. And then you're invited me, the Lord, the king of your life. That's right. And then Romans ten thirteen says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be safe. That's right. You can do that today where you're at. That's awesome. All right. Well, hey, that is our time together and so we will hopefully see you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,