This evening’s study from the life and ministry of Elisha brings out this phrase in a most amazing context and with some wonderful lessons for each of us here about sharing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with others.

1. In Biblical times the disease of Leprosy was regarded as a awful punishment from the Lord. It's very name means "smiting". Those who were afflicted with the disease were considered to be unclean. I am not going to say much about their disease since I did that in our study about Naaman and his leprosy.

2. The awful disease of Leprosy reminds us of the sinful condition of mankind, and it's affects. Like leprosy the sinful nature of man is inherited. Every person born into this world outside of Christ is born in sin. The writer of the Psalms declared "In sin did my mother conceive me." Like leprosy, sin spreads. Leprosy affected those who were in immediate contact as does sin.

3. Leprosy started off seemingly innocent with just specks, but would soon spread like cancer and consumes the individual. Sin, like Leprosy brought shame and disgrace upon the individual. The leper was hopeless apart from a work of God even as is the sinner. Outside of a miracle from God the Leper would die in his condition. Apart from the work of grace, the sinner is doomed !

1. We see in our scripture tonight the separation of the Leper. They were outside the gates of the city. No leper could live in a walled city. And wherever he was he was required to have his outer garment torn as a sign of deep grief. He was required to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle as if lamenting at his own virtual death. He was obligated further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out "Unclean ! Unclean ! A leper was not allowed to speak to any one, or receive or return any salutation since this involved in an embrace.

2. The Leper was cutoff from the house of God, and was excluded from priesthood. They lived a shameful, segregated, and separated life. What a awful glimpse of the results of our sinful nature. We are separated from God because of our sin ! We are unclean !

1. Not only were the lepers forced to deal with the disease that ravished their body, and the shame that occupied their soul....they were starving. Look at their dire situation.

2. As we saw two weeks ago in our study of 2 Kings 6:24-33, the city of Samaria was brought to the level of eating unclean food, and cannibalism. That was what was happening within the walls of the city. Think how much more desperate it must have been for those outside the walls but trapped just as much as those within the walls! If there was any food to be had, the lepers would probably have been the last ones to receive any hand-outs ! They were dying and there didn’t seem to be any hope for them.

3. This description of the four lepers outside the walls of Samaria sure sounds like any and all those outside of Christ. The difference is that those inside with Christ “in Christ” are not starving but have eternal life. Those outside of Christ are “dead in their trespasses and sins.”

1. Why sit we here until we die ? There were few opportunities for the lepers. Not many choices were available. But they realized that if they remained where they were...they would die ! They had been content (as content as a leper could be) living outside the walls of the city and subsisting on whatever they could get but there is nothing now.

2. They had finally reached the bottom of the well, so to speak and that caused them to see their hopeless condition in all it’s horribleness. The four lepers came to a unanimous decision "let us fall unto the host of the Syrians:" The word "fall" means to "cast ourselves down". "If they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die..." This wasn't much of a choice, but it was better than sitting at the gate !

3. In a similar way, God will often allow a sinner, because of their own willfulness, to drop clear to the bottom of the well of their sinfulness. They will not look to God unless they have reached the end of all their resources and pride, and for many they never turn to God, ever. Until a lost sinner really sees how sinful and depraved they are in God’s sight, they will continue to delude themselves into believing they are ok with God.

1. “And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians:” They waited until the twilight most likely to hide from those on the wall who were there to protect the city from the Syrians. If they went in broad daylight they would have most likely have been shot down by arrows as traitors, so they waited until it began to darken, then they made good their escape.

2. Just as there is a time to decide that sin is sin, there is a time to depart from sin and to flee to Jesus. There must be a departing from the place of death for the place of life or it will never happen. One who turns from sin to the Savior knows that are being offered eternal life, whereas these poor lepers only figured they had a slim chance of being alive much longer, but they departed any how.

1. They were planning on putting themselves at the mercy of the Syrians or so they thought. Unknown to them, God had provided the miracle which had earlier been prophesied. It wasn't the Syrians that they could trust, but it was Almighty God that proved himself trustworthy, and faithful !

2. We can trust God ! We can cast ourselves down before him, and find mercy and grace !

1. The sound of four men coming to the camp was amplified by God to sound like a whole army, or something like that. The Syrians heard the sound of chariots, horses, and many men coming toward them. They thought maybe the Israelites had gotten the Hittites and the Egyptians to come to their aid.

2. The text says the “kings of the Hittites” and the “kings of the Egyptians.” Some scholars take the word “kings” in regard to the Hittites and translate it as “chieftains”. They had, as history leaves for us, formed a sort of confederacy and were feared by the Syrians. On the other hand, we usually think of a sole ruler over Egypt but the verse says “kings”. History also records that by this time in Egypt’s history the pharaoh form of rulership was falling apart and that Egypt was being ruled by three to four dynasties - thus a number of “kings”. God’s Word is always correct when it comes to history. It just might take people in modern times a long time to find the evidence but it always substantiates the Bible.

3. When they got to the Syrian camp they found nobody there - every soldier had fled for their life. They had resigned themselves to the fact that they were apparently outnumbered and outgunned and needed to get out of “Dodge.” They fled in the twilight as the lepers came to the camp in the twilight.

1. The starving lepers found food and drink in the first tent they came into. They immediately began eating the food and drinking the drinks left by the Syrians.

2. In Christ Jesus we will always find the refreshment that we need. We may partake of the bread of life which does not perish, and we may drink from a well that never runs dry ! This is exactly what Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria. He told her that He was the living water that would cause her to thirst no more.

3. There is no refreshment if we abstain from partaking!

1. They found the plunder of the Syrians. These poor lepers...outcasts from society....begging for handouts went from doing without to discovering silver and gold.

2. The believer has received in Christ much greater worth. According to Paul in Eph 3:8 the riches of Christ are unsearchable. We have the riches of his grace ! We have the riches of his goodness ! We have the riches of his glory awaiting us !

1. Having a change of clothing was a bonus to these lepers ! I doubt if a change of clothing was high up on their list ! Yet, God furnished them with raiment.....robes !

1. Who could blame them for stuffing themselves with the essentials ? But they became so caught up in the surprise, and the excitement, and were so overwhelmed that they totally forgot about the condition of the others. In fact, they hid what they had found. You only hid something because you fear that somebody will take it away from you. These lepers went into a second tent and found more wealth and, like squirrels, began hiding it away as well. They were overdosing on the drug called “selfishness.”

2. The mentality of our world today is get as much as you can while you can ! Eat, drink and be merry ! Take care of number one !

This was a miraculous supply from God, and they had a responsibility of making it known...yet

1. They filled themselves with food, and drink...clothed themselves in new raiment, and hid gold and silver......and kept silent !

2. There were people back in the city of Samaria that were dying of starvation. There were children that were being looked upon with the greediness of those starving to death, and there was food aplenty just a short distance from where all this was happening.

3. So often we are also silent about the spiritual food that spiritually hungry people need to be told about. Sadly, many do not believe what they are told, but those who do and always satisfied. We should not be silent.

1. They remembered their condition of starvation, and thirst just earlier, and recalled the terrible circumstances of those outside of the Syrian camp, and within the city walls. It certainly is amazing how fast people forget others when they are only thinking of themselves. Thankfully, for the people in the city of Samaria, they were remembered by the four lepers.

2. The believer must keep in mind our previous spiritual condition before being saved. We must not forget that the world needs that which we have received....just as we once did.

1. "We do not well: this day is a day of good tiding, and we hold our peace" They recognized that what they were doing was not just or right ! In fact, they feared that if they tarried in telling the people of Samaria about all this food, something bad would surely happen to them. They were beginning to feel some guilt over how they had responded to the plenty they found before them.

2. Is it right for the believer, and the church to have tasted of the manifold blessings of God, and yet not share with others ? It is a day of good tiding. Let us not hold our peace for there is plenty to go around for God is plenteous in mercy !

1. Samaria had been delivered but did not know it. But now the four lepers will make it known to them. It is now night, but it will not wait till morning, and so in the darkness they return to the gates of the city, and reveal the good news to the gatekeeper who in turn spread it to the other keepers who then spread the news to the king.

2. Night is falling. The good news of the death, burial and resurrection will not keep. We must share it now ! We must not hold our peace any longer ! The church can no longer tarry. We must share the message of salvation to those who are hungry, thirsty, and dying ! The souls of men, women, boys and girls are at stake !

3. Could it be that some mischief could fall on us if we do not tell others of what we have found?