Sandy's Devotional

DEVOTIONAL:
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”  So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took 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. Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not 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." (2 Kings 7:3-9)

 The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed and to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Isaiah 61:1)

Israel had been under siege from the Aramean army and the people were starving to death. Four lepers rightly felt that they had nothing to lose by going to the enemy camp. Surely, they had been motivated by the Spirit of God, for they found that God had caused the enemy to flee and leave behind food and wealth. They realized that joyous news of salvation is NOT something to be kept to oneself when others are desperate. They were compelled to share THE GOOD NEWS.

Yeshua has given us a message of hope, freedom, healing and liberty for all who hurt and are broken. We have received great news and great mercy from the King. May we, like the four lepers, share this news with all who hunger and thirst for His love. The lepers were not leaders, they were rejected, sickly, outcasts, but they shared the word of help and salvation. No matter who we are, if we have tasted of God’s salvation, we can share the good news.