Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040208.htm

1 AND 2 KINGS: ENJOYING GOD'S BLESSING IN AN APOSTATE ERA
Part XLI: Learning To TRUST God's Word From His FORMER Faithfulness To Keep It
(2 Kings 6:8-7:20)
  1. Introduction
    1. Often, current trials of our faith in God and His Word can exceed in intensity similar previous trials.
    2. Well, in such current crises, God wants us to learn from His past faithfulness to His Word to TRUST His Word's promises for PRESENT, GREATER trials!
    3. 2 Kings 6:8-7:20 indicates a need to build on former evidences of God's faithfulness to His Word for dealing effectively with present, more severe trials (as follows):
  2. Learning To TRUST God's Word From His FORMER Faithfulness To Keep It, 2 Kings 6:8-7:20.
    1. We have learned God fulfilled His prophecy to give Israel victory over raiding Syrian bands, 6:8-20:
      1. When Syria's king sent raiding parties into Israel, God used Elisha to predict repeatedly where the raiders would be so the king of Israel could escape harm from these Syrian bands, 2 Kings 6:8-10.
      2. Then when Syria's king heard Elisha was exposing his secret plans, and sent an army to get Elisha, God used Elisha to blind the Syrians and lead them into captivity in the city of Samaria, 6:11-20.
      3. Thus, God KEPT His PROPHECIES through Elisha to DELIVER Israel from the SYRIANS!
    2. Yet, God intended that His people learn from His faithfulness to His Word to continue to trust Him for GREATER trials with these Syrians based on such precedents of His faithfulness to His Word, 6:21-25:
      1. When God graciously gave the Syrian bands into the hands of Israel, instead of letting Israel's king destroy them, God directed that Israel feed them and peacefully release them, 2 Kings 6:21-22.
      2. Well, though the Syrians no longer raided Israel, this gracious move on Israel's part was met by the eventual mustering of the whole Syrian army to lay siege to Samaria in order to conquer it, 6:23-24.
      3. This move hindered Samaria's commerce, producing a severe famine in the city, 2 Kings 6:25.
      4. Thus, God had ALLOWED the Syrians to be released by Elisha from Samaria knowing FULL WELL they would return to create a GREATER crisis for Israel so God's people would have to APPLY their memory of His PAST faithfulness to His Word to the NEXT, GREATER crisis!
    3. As it happened, God's people experienced EITHER tragic defeat OR great blessing for either failing to trust God's past faithfulness in handling the Syrians or trusting Him for the current trial, 6:26-7:20:
      1. On the one hand, faithless people in Samaria stooped to the tragic cannibalism of a beloved child for failing to trust God's help over the Syrians before would mean He would help them now, 6:26-30.
      2. In fact, the apostate king of Israel tried to have Elisha beheaded for the current crisis in unbelief of how God had used him to deliver Israel from the Syrians once before, and Israel's king even spoke of surrendering to the Syrians in his unbelief, 6:31-32, 33; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 2 Kings 6:33.
      3. God had Elisha graciously predict the famine would be relieved as God delivered Israel again from the Syrians, a prediction that the king believed enough not to carry out his execution of Elisha, 7:1.
      4. However, the man upon whom the king of Israel leaned for support did not believe this prediction regardless of the reliability of God's keeping His past promises through Elisha, 2 Kings 7:2a; Elisha then predicted this man would be judged to see God's provision but not partake of it, 2 Kings 7:2b.
      5. Well, God sent the Syrian hosts the sound of a huge army that caused them to drop all their goods and food and flee, and poor lepers from Samaria found these goods and told Samaria about them, 7:3-10.
      6. When news of the Syrian flight spread, there was a rush of hungry people from Samaria out to the spoils; however, the man who had doubted Elisha's prediction of a bounty of food was trampled to death in accord with God's prophecy through Elisha, 2 Kings 7:11-20.
Lesson: To the DEGREE the people of Israel RELIED on the FAITHFULNESS of God to KEEP His Word's predictions in the PAST did they experience EITHER AWFUL TRAGEDY or ABUNDANT BLESSING in the CURRENT crisis with the Syrian invaders!

Application: If we KNOW God has FULFILLED His WORD in trials we have ALREADY faced, and then face more SEVERE trials in the PRESENT, we must take God's TRACK RECORD SERIOUSLY and TRUST His Word NOW: as the STAKES are so HIGH in SEVERE trials, FAILING to trust God's Word in them brings TERRIBLE TRAGEDY where TRUSTING His Word yields HUGE BLESSING!