The Great Famine of Samaria

2 Kings 6: 24-33
2 Kings, Chapter 7


The Bible says in verse 24, “And it came to pass.” I’m so glad it came to pass, aren’t you? You know, I am so grateful that everything comes to pass. When you’re going through a rough time, have you ever had someone tell you, “This too shall pass.”

Well, I’ve had it said to me before. It’s a great feeling knowing that it’s not going to be like this forever. Praise God all the heartache, the fears, the sickness, and tears will all pass away some day. The Bible says in Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” I guess problems have to come before they can pass, huh? Anyway, we haven’t gotten through the first sentence yet.

After the Syrians had been tricked by God, and fooled by Elisha, they were sent back to Syria. Shortly after that, the Bible says in verse 24, “ And it came to pass that Benhadad, King of Syria, gathered all his host and went up, and besieged Samaria.” Besieged means: to surround with armed forces. The Syrians set up camp all along the outskirts of Samaria. In doing this, the food supply was cut off to the people in Samaria. After a while, the food was so scarce that the people were willing to pay four score pieces of silver just for a donkey’s head to eat. Four score, means 80 pieces of silver. Wow! What a lot of money, and just for a donkey’s head. But you know what? Money doesn’t mean a hoot when you’re hungry. People will pay any price for food.

But listen to this, it gets worse. Bird droppings were sold for five pieces of silver, and the people used it for food. At least you can boil a donkey’s head. I don’t know how you’d eat bird droppings. I guess just hold your nose and swallow. You know what else? You’ll eat anything when you’re hungry. I know what I’m talking about. I used to live in a third world, poverty stricken country. If you get hungry enough, anything seems good.

Oh, but wait, it gets worse than that. We’re not even to the bad part yet. A woman saw the King of Israel passing by one day, and ran up to him and cried, “Help, oh Lord my King.”
The King of Israel looked at her and said, “ If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee.” The King knew that there was nothing he could do. If God didn’t help them, they had no help at all.

But the woman kept on following the King around, and she said to him, “Oh King, this woman said to me , Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him; and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son.”

When the King heard this, his heart was grieved. He rent his clothes, and put sack cloth on his flesh. I think we need to stop right here and consider something. You might think, “How could this woman eat her child? How awful!” Before we judge, consider this. The Bible is so down to earth. The reality of people in bible time is still the reality of people today. God knows human flesh, and he put a good description of it in his holy book. We have no idea what our human nature is capable of doing. But God does. The Bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked above all things, who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9.

In Haiti, where I used to live, they ate anything that had meat on it. You know what? If they were hungry enough, they would even boil and eat their babies that died of sickness or starvation. Why waste the meat when you’re hungry? I know that’s a harsh thing to say, but it’s reality over there, and sometimes we need to get hit with reality every once in a while.

In Haiti we lived near a voodoo village, and they stole our two cats and ate them. My momma always bought hamburger meat because she could stretch it out and make a little bit into a big meal. One day, my mother went down town to the place where we always bought our hamburger meat. The man that sold the meat was not there. My mother found out later that the man had been arrested for selling human flesh. The first five months we lived in Haiti we ate rice and beans, and beans and rice. It was always a treat when Momma cooked hamburger meat in our rice. But after hearing about that, we lost our appetite for hamburger meat for a little while. I was so glad when the time came for us to leave that third world country.

Getting back to our story, the king was very grieved. I can’t even imagine what he felt after hearing about these two women. All of Samaria was in total starvation. The king got mad at Elisha and wanted to kill him. If you ask me, he got mad at the wrong person. Isn’t that just like us sometimes? We get mad at the one who can help us. The King had to get mad at someone, and he took his anger out on Elisha.

Elisha was sitting in his house with the elders, when the king sent a messenger out before him. But before the messenger even got to Elisha’s house, Elisha said to the elders. “See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? Look, when the messenger commeth, shut the door, because the sound of his master’s feet is right behind him.”

When the King got to Elisha’s house, Elisha met him at the door. And Elisha said to him, “Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.”

Well, there was a lord on whose hand the king leaned, and he made fun of Elisha, and mocked him. He said, “If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be.” In other words, he said that he’d have to see God make windows in heaven, before he’d believe what Elisha said.
Elisha said, “O.K. buddy, your going to see this with your own eyes, but your not going to get a chance to eat any of it.”

And the Bible tells us in Chapter 7, verse 3, that there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. These men said to one another, “Why sit we here till we die? We can die just as good in Samaria as we can here. And if we fall into the hands of the Syrian’s we’ll die there. Either way were going to die, so let’s just get up and make a move.”

The leprous men would have to go through the host of the Syrians in order to get into Samaria. So they rose up at twilight to go into the camps of the Syrians. But when they got there, there was no one in sight. They walked through the middle of the camp and you could here a pin drop. Not a soul to be found.

Do you know what happened? The Lord caused the Syrians to hear a great host of chariots, and horses. The Syrians thought that the King of Israel hired the Kings of the Hittites, and the Kings of the Egyptians to come and fight for him. The Syrians were so afraid that they took off running for their lives. And all the while, they were just hearing noises in their ears. You’ve heard the statement, “Oh, your just hearing things.” Well, the Syrians were just hearing things. God certainly does have a sence of humor, doesn’t he? The Syrians were so scared, that they took off on foot, and left everthing behind, even their horses.

The only army that came into the camp that day was four scrawny leper men. Those men went into one tent and ate and drank all they could stand. Then they carried out the silver, the gold, and the raiment. Then they went and buried it. They went from one tent to the next, eating and drinking, and carrying out valuables to hide them. They suddenly realized that they were not doing the right thing by not telling the King of Israel. So they went and told the King’s household.
At first, the King thought it was a trap. He thought that the Syrians were hiding and waiting for them to come out of the city so that they could take them alive and get into the city. But he soon found out that it wasn’t a trap, and that what the lepers told him was true.
When the people of Samaria found out that the Syrians were gone, the Bible says that they went and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. They went into those tents and just started eating, and drinking everything that they could get their hands on. They started grabbing things and stuffing them into their pockets. It was like Christmas to them.

Now remember that lord of the king who mocked Elisha? Well, the king appointed him to be keeper of the gate. But all of the people were so excited, and they were so hungry that they trampled him to death trying to get out of the gate. And just as Elisha said, that man never got to taste of the food left behind by the Syrians. We should never mock God’s word. And we should always remember that what ever God says, will surely come to pass.