Joel M Bradshaw

3Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? 4If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” 

5So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there.6For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” 

7So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. 8And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.–2 Kings 7, with emphasis

1. This is an odd little story in the middle of a famine.
2. It was probably meant to demoralize a people who were at war with Israel.
3. This would have been like when David pretended to be a slobbering fool while hiding in a Philistine city. It made the Philistines look bad. My favorite line from that story is 1 Samuel 21:15.
4. Here, two starving, outcast lepers got to be the “heroes” of the story.
5. I underlined a moment that stood out to me. This was how God had decided to work behind the scenes to accomplish His will.
6. I journey with people who marvel at how God answers their prayers in their impossible situations.
7. We often see God’s providential hand at work when we look back at our lives and marvel at how God has brought us through those difficult times or seasons.–JMB