2 Kings 7:3-15 - Homiletics

The plenitude of God's power to deliver from the extremist dangers.

It is impossible to conceive a peril greater than that of Samaria at this time. The Syrians were masters of all the open country. They had for months surrounded the town and strictly blockaded it. The store of provisions within the walls was almost wholly exhausted, and there was no possibility of obtaining a supply from without. Jehoram had no ally who could be expected to come to his aid. Human wisdom, as personified in the "lord on whose hand the king leaned," might well view the end as certain, not seeing from what quarter deliverance could possibly come. But man's extremity is God's opportunity. With God nothing is impossible. Nothing is even hard. He has a thousand resources. He can send forth his angel into a camp at nightfall, and in the morning they shall be "all dead men" ( 2 Kings 19:35 ). He can make brothers-in-arms to fall out, and turn their swords one against another ( 2 Chronicles 20:23 ). He can send a soundless panic upon the largest and best-appointed host, and cause them to flee away and disappear, "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor." He can make two men, like Jonathan and his armor-bearer ( 1 Samuel 14:6-16 ), victorious over a multitude. "A thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one," if God so wills it. Panic he can cause in a hundred ways. "It is only necessary that in the darkness a wind should blow, or that water should splash in free course, or that an echo should resound from the mountains, or that the wind should rustle the dry leaves, to terrify the godless, so that they flee as if pursued by a sword, and fall though no one pursues them" (Le 26:36). In the present case, the Syrians heard a sound, how caused we know not, and instantly imagined that a danger threatened them, which could only be escaped by immediate flight. Israel had hired against them, they thought, two armies, one of Egyptians and the other of Hittites; the armies had arrived, and would fall upon them at dawn of day. So they hastily fled in the darkness, casting away arms and vessels and garments as they went ( 2 Kings 7:15 ), and leaving behind them their camp standing, with all its stores intact, its flour and barley, its gold and silver, its rich raiment, its war-horses and beasts of burden. The Samaritans were called upon to do nothing—they had but to "stand still, and see the salvation of God" ( Exodus 15:13 ). In one day, without any exertion of their own, their deliverance was complete. And so it is with God always.

I. GOD HAS POWER TO DELIVER FROM ALL EARTHLY PERILS . In an hour, in a moment, if he pleases, God has power to deliver:

1. From disease. He can cleanse the leper; give sight to the blind; heal malignant ulcers; infuse strength and vigor into the palsied; make plague, or fever, or any other mortal sickness to pass away.

2. From poverty. He can cause the poorest man to find a treasure, or put it into the heart of a rich man to leave him one, or so bless his little store that it becomes abundance ( 2 Kings 4:1-7 ), or give him favor in the sight of a monarch ( Esther 7:6 -11), or put the wealth of thousands at his disposal ( Acts 4:34-37 ).

3. From oppression. He can destroy or cast down the oppressor, cut him off suddenly, release his victims, break the chains from off their neck, "lift them up out of the mire, and set them with the princes of his people."

4. From shame. He can raise from the dungeon to the palace ( Genesis 41:14 ; Daniel 6:23-28 ); can make men ready to worship one whom a moment before they denounced as a murderer ( Acts 28:3-6 ); can "set on thrones" those who have been treated as "the offscouring of all things" ( 1 Corinthians 4:14 ).

II. GOD HAS ALSO POWER TO DELIVER FROM SPIRITUAL PERILS .

1. He can preserve from the power of Satan, "deliver from the evil one," quench all his fiery darts, abate his pride, rescue men from his dominion when they seem on the point of submitting to it.

2. He can deliver from the guilt of sin; can accept atonement; can put away men's sins from them, so that, "though they were as scarlet, they shall become white as snow; though they were red like crimson, they shall be as wool" ( Isaiah 1:18 ).

3. And he can deliver from the power of sin. He can "strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees" ( Isaiah 35:3 ), can take away the evil out of men's hearts, and put his Holy Spirit within them; can enable them to resist the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; can make of them "new creatures" God, and God alone, can do this; and to him we must look for this deliverance; to him we must pray for this deliverance; to him, when we have obtained it, we must be eternally grateful for this deliverance. "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift!"