Morning

July 9

2 Kings 7:8-9 ⁸The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. ⁹Then they said to each other, "We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace."

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 against 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 staying or going they would probably die, but by going 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.

Consider: This is a day of good news... Let's go at once and report this.