1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Have you found God to be a very present help in the time of need?
2 Kings gives us a story that demonstrates God’s help in the most critical circumstances of life.
2 Kings 6:24–25 NKJV And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
This scripture reading is a very sad picture of horror.
There was a great famine in Samaria that was brought on by the attack of Ben-Hadad king of Aram. The siege against the city lasted so long that food supplies were gone. It is difficult to imagine the horror of starvation.
People were eating anything they could find.
This text shows the grim details. The market was selling donkey’s heads and dove droppings. There was not enough food to go around.
2 Kings 6:26 NKJVThen, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
The woman thought the king of Israel might be able to help.
2 Kings 6:27 NKJV And he said, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?”
Everyone needs to hear that.
If God does not help us, where can we find the help that we need.
2 Kings 6:28-29 NKJV Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
It is hard to imagine that depth of desperation.
People do terrible things when they are pressed into distress and desperation. Conditions were very grim.
2 Kings 6:30 NKJV Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body.
The people saw something that the king did not want them to see. The king had sackcloth within upon his flesh. Under his royal garments the king wore sackcloth. Grief and the burden for his people were upon the king.
Wearing sackcloth was a sign of mourning for the dead.
Jacob put on sackcloth and mourned when he was told that a ferocious animal had killed his son Joseph. David wept aloud and required the people to put on sackcloth and mourn for Abner.
Sackcloth was worn when people humbled themselves before God in repentance.
When Ahab heard the judgment against him and Jezebel his wife, he put on sackcloth and fasted. After David had sinned by counting the host of Israel’s armies, the angel of the Lord appeared to David with His sword drawn. David and the elders of Israel clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown and repented before God.
Sackcloth was a sign of prayer to God for deliverance.
Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and wailed bitterly when he heard the edict of the king.
The king of Israel had sackcloth on his body under his royal robes.
He had hidden grief. He was trying to stay strong on the outside, but there was pain on the inside.
We do that sometimes.
We don’t want to walk around in sackcloth for everyone to see. There is sorrow and secret pain on the inside. There is hidden sin and failure. We look at others and smile on the outside, but on the inside there is weeping. We laugh and act like everything is fine, but on the inside our heart is broken.
The king had sackcloth under his royal robes.
There must be restraints. We are living in a day when everyone is taught to do whatever you feel like doing. Just do what you want to do. People are flaunting things today that should be private or not done at all.
The king had sackcloth under his royal robes.
Have you ever just got away from everything with God and prayed?
There are times we need to steal away and get alone with God. We need to talk to God instead of man.
The king told that woman, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you?”
Only God is able to give help and peace. God is able to give great consolation. Only God has the resources and ability to help in time of need. Only God has the needed mercy and grace to help our need.
No one is exempt from troubles.
The man next door has his problems. The rich and the poor have this in common.
They may be covered with gold, but what is underneath?
Underneath there is still a spiritual hunger. Underneath are distresses and a cry for God’s help.
There is much sackcloth in our world.
We try to hide it, but it is there. We don’t want everyone to know what is going on. We have troubles, cares and woes that we carry in secret.
You have heard it said: “Walk a mile in my shoes.”
That means, ‘Don’t judge me because you don’t know what I am going through.”
We should show sympathy. We don’t always see the sackcloth others are wearing within. It is easy to think that everyone else is happy and at ease.
Millions of people are in worse shape than you.
Do you remember reading what happened when Joseph’s brother appeared before him in Egypt?
Genesis 43:30–31 NKJV Now his heart yearned for his brother; so Joseph made haste and sought somewhere to weep. And he went into his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out; and he restrained himself, and said, “Serve the bread.”
Thousands of people wash their faces in the midst of terrible trouble.
They perform their duties with aching hearts. Behind the laughs, jokes, and chatter, they have secret fears, broken romances, and family troubles. Every once in a while people have more than they can hold in and they have a melt down. I have witnessed that in the waiting room in the hospital and at the graveside. I have seen it happen in church and at people’s home.
There is hope.
Disobedience was what caused the king to put on the sackcloth.
Sin is a masterpiece of decoy and deceit. This is the bait of Satan. He brings up anything he can to bait, trap, and deceive your mind and soul. The pleasure of sin only lasts a moment. Sin will take you farther than you want to go and cost you more than you are willing to pay.
When we see the king with sackcloth, we see someone who is taking a look within.
He knew he was personally to blame, but he did not want to accept it. Many times it is easier to blame someone else.
2 Kings 6:31 NKJV Then he said, “God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!”
This happens to many people.
The accident is not my fault, even though I am on the wrong side of the road.
It was hard for the king to admit why this happened.
God is not going to allow him to escape the facts. The king could try to blame Elisha, but he knew what was wrong.
2 Kings 6:33 NKJV Then the king said, “Surely this calamity is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
The king knew he was wrong. He knew his people had sinned. At the core of their calamity, the king knew that there was sin.
If this calamity is from the Lord, what hope do we have?
Have you ever come to realize that?
You should have asked for forgiveness. You should have come to God. You tried to cover up and hide.
When the king admitted that he was in the Lord’s hands, God made a way out.
The next verse gives God’s remedy for their dilemma.
Elisha, the man of God said: “Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of finely milled flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.’” (2 Kings 7:1)
God is in the business of deliverance.
God knows how to bring you out of your situation.
Psalm 30:5 NKJV For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
Your time of difficulty is almost over.
When you turn to the Lord, He will turn your mourning into dancing. He will clothe you with gladness. You have been through a long night of difficulty. You don’t think you can hold on any longer. You have wept and cried. You have tossed and turned. You have looked for a way out.
God has this message for you! “Your weeping may endure for the night, but joy is coming.”
