It is too bad that we have a chapter change at this point for the story simply goes on in chapter 7 with Elisha speaking directly to Jehoram about what will happen within the next 24 hours - the ending of the famine and a tremendous drop in the price for food. The drop in prices would be very dramatic. It would be like the price of gas going from $2.49.9/gal. at Sheetz today to $.10/gal. by tomorrow this time.

From a human point of view this was impossible. Where would the grain come from? How could the price drop so quickly? Even if there was grain somewhere, how were they going to get it past the Syrian army around the city?

It is important to note that Elisha was not making this up. Two times he states that his message is directly from the LORD. That should have caused those listening to his message to rejoice in this word of encouragement from the LORD through Elisha. They should have taken note that when Elisha spoke in the name of the LORD, it always came to pass.

There was one man there who either was alone with his wrong views concerning God, or was foolish enough to voice them. I think it was probably the later. We will study more detail next week the way God accomplished what Elisha said, but it all came to pass and the courtier who voiced his unbelief did see that great amounts of food would be available at low prices, but was trampled to death by the hungry residents of Samaria as they stampeded to the Syrian’s empty camp to eat.

From this striking and tragic story we can learn -

1. This courtier might have given many plausible reasons for doubting the prophet’s message:

2. As this first point states - unbelief nearly always appears to have reason on its side. There is not a doctrine of the Bible against which the most plausible arguments have not been advanced. Even scripture itself can be quoted in support of unbelief and sin - Satan certainly has done so. Good arguments are not necessarily a proof of the truth or justice of a case.

1. This courtier reasoned that it was an impossibility what Elisha said would take place within 24 hours. What he was really saying was that he had never seen such a thing happen before, even from God, so he didn’t believe it would ever happen. The reasoning of man is that since it has never happened before it cannot happen.

2. Let me use an illustration to show us how utterly foolish this type of reasoning is. There are many illustrations of this but I’ll just use a few. There was a time in the early years of those over 50 years of age that anybody thought man would get into space let alone set foot on the moon, yet on July 11, 1969 Neil Armstrong made the first human foot print on the moon and seen around the world. I recall watching that on a BW TV set at the home of a couple who were attending the church in Soldotna, Alaska. For some of us here there was a time when the concept of a computer on our desk, a cell phone, the internet, etc. was not even a dream - it was unheard of, yet today those things are taken for granted. People all through history have said that certain things would never happen - like man being able to fly through the air, and yet with time that is exactly what took place. The impossibilities of today turn out to be the possibilities of tomorrow. There are certainly inventions yet to be developed by mankind that are totally beyond the realm of our understanding.

4. Who are we that we should limit God? Who are we that we should set bounds on His power? Who are we that we should set bounds to His justice on the one hand, or to His mercy on the other? Who are we to say that God is no longer in control of the events taking place around us?

5. So you see, just because the courtier couldn’t conceive of such a miracle happening didn’t mean it wouldn’t. Imagine if God operated on what we thought He could or could not do?

1. As Jehoram’s courtier found out the next day, it was downright dangerous to question what God says He will do. This man could have believed what Elisha said and enjoyed what everyone else enjoyed the next day - a bounty of food and loot from the Syrian’s camp. As it was he knew of the bounty but died. He lived in unbelief and he paid the price for his unbelief.

2. This also happened to the people who lived in the days of Noah who were warned for 120 years of the coming flood to destroy the world. They refused to believe and their hour of grace passed and they perished. Their unbelief about what God could do was certainly dangerous.

3. There is coming a day, maybe very soon, when the nations of the world will come up against Israel and think to destroy her. They will most likely know what the Bible says about all this but will ignore it because they don’t believe it. They will find out very quickly that there is a God in Heaven who always, always keeps His word.

4. Many today are told that they can have eternal salvation through the work of Christ on the cross in their behalf. They are told that there is salvation only through Christ. They will not believe it. They will say they have their own religion. They will reason with their mind that they are not as sinful as God says they are and will walk away from the most wonderful offer of all eternity. They will die in their state of unbelief and be eternally separated from God fully knowing and remembering the offer made to them and the words and attitudes they had when they rejected it for the last time. I believe they will know what they missed out on, but they will experience the second death. Oh how terrible that unbelieving courtier’s doom: “Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.”