When the going starts getting tough in life – you know what we often do – we look to other people to help. People more experienced than us. But what if they’ve lost the plot too.  Then what? A Hopeless King Have you ever been in one of those places of real desperation – you know, nothing is going right – you’re wondering what, if anything, God is thinking and has He taken a holiday; has He taken leave of His senses? How can a faithful God allow this to happen to me… me, of all people? Today on the program, in this second in the series called "Having Faith that Moves Mountains", we’re going to take a close look at such a time in the history of Israel. It was absolute desperation time, in fact, things were so bad; people were so hungry that mothers were cannibalising their children. Can you imagine? See, by and large, we don’t have to rely too much on faith when things are all going swimmingly well. We need faith when there are mountains that need moving; we need faith when we have something impossible to deal with. And those are precisely the times that we find ourselves at our weakest and most vulnerable. Those are precisely the times when the last thing we feel like we have is some mighty faith. So this story… this story takes place at a time in Israel’s history that can best be described as ‘rock bottom’. So let’s have a look – if you have a Bible, grab it. We are going to Second Kings chapter 6, beginning a verse 24: Sometime later, King Ben-hadad of Aram mustered his entire army; he marched against Samaria and laid siege to it. As the siege continued, famine in Samaria became so great that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and one-fourth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. Now as the king of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried out to him, ‘Help me, my lord king!’ He said, ‘No! Let the Lord help you. How can I help you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?’ But then the king asked her, ‘What is your complaint?’ She answered, ‘This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son; we will eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we cooked by son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son and we will eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.’ When the king heard the words of the woman he tore at his clothes – now since he was walking on the city wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth on his body underneath – and he said, ‘So may God do to me, and more, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders today.’ So he dispatched a man from his presence. Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Before the messenger arrived, Elisha said to the elders, ‘Are you aware that this murderer has sent someone to take off my head? When the messenger comes, see that you shut the door and hold it closed against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him? While he was still speaking with them, the king came down to him and said, ‘This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I hope in the Lord any longer?’ But Elisha said, ‘Hear the Word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, ‘Tomorrow about this time a measure of choice meal shall be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’ Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, ‘Even if the Lord were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?’ But Elisha said, ‘You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it.’ What an incredibly sad state of affairs! Can you imagine a hunger and a hopelessness so deep that mothers are cannibalising their children? I can’t conceive of a situation more desperate, more repugnant, and sadder than this. But here it is – that’s what happened – rock bottom, in fact, so rock bottom that you and I would struggle to point to an event more rock bottom in our own lives. Israel was under siege from the Aramean Army. The whole point of a siege is to starve the opposition out of their impenetrable citadel and quite clearly, the food has run out. I don’t know the last time you went to the butcher’s shop and bought a donkey’s head but my hunch is there is not a lot of meat on a donkey’s head and this was selling for an outrageous amount of money. A clear case of supply and demand. So here’s God’s anointed King – in fact, the Hebrew word for God’s Anointed is "Messiah" and it was so often used of the Kings of Israel. The King is walking up on the ramparts of the city and tearing at his clothes – he is wearing sackcloth, which means that he is in mourning. And up there on the city wall all the people can see him. What they need is leadership and inspiration from God’s anointed leader but he’s lost all hope in every sense of the word – he’s hopeless. And a woman comes to him out of sheer desperation having eaten her son (eaten her son!!) and what does the King have to say? "What do you expect me to do? Look at the mess we are in!" Great leadership! And what’s the obvious thing to do when you believe in God and lose hope? Well, of course, you blame God which is what the King did. Clearly, this mess was God’s fault – He is God isn’t He? And that’s exactly what the King did. So as any good King anointed for leadership by God would do, he decides he is going to go and kick the dog – in this case, he is going to go and kill the prophet Elisha – to shoot the messenger, as it were. I make light of it but Elisha was in danger of losing his head. So the King goes to see the prophet. Remember the prophet in society is the man who speaks for God – the prophet’s role here in Israel is to speak God’s Word into the life of Israel. And so the King demanded to know of the prophet, "This trouble is from the Lord – why should I hope in the Lord any longer?" That, as it turns out, is a very good question. It’s a question that a few of us have probably asked once or twice at some rock bottom point along our own journeys. And the prophet speaks the Word of God – it’s a word of outrageous hope and promise – it’s a faithful word from a faithful God. "Hear the Word of the Lord. ‘Thus’, says the Lord, ‘tomorrow this time a measure of choice meal shall be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." Now that was completely and utterly outrageous; it was impossible, unless you believe God. And remember what the King’s soldier said, "Even if the Lord would have made windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?" But God did more than that and as we will see in a moment, within twenty-four hours the words of the prophet – the very Word of God – came to pass. Why? Because however difficult it is to believe; however impossible the situation and big the mountain and distant our God seems, He is mighty to save; He is faithful; He is awesome – just is! Four Nobodies Have you ever met a Mr or Mrs Super Christian? I have! These people have their lives so incredibly together and they seem so strong in their faith, that you go home, you look in the mirror and you think to yourself, "Oh, I could never be like that, I’m hopeless; I’m a failure." Funny how we look at things through the world’s eyes – just because on the outside someone appears to be confident and they can tell us good stories of their lives, we assume that they are perfection personified. And we know for sure that they’re not. If someone has a position or a title or something like that, we imagine, well, that they are better than us. To do something mighty and powerful, God would obviously use them instead of you or me. But here in this city of Samaria that was under siege, where there was no food, ...

Released on 27 Feb 2022