Topic: “Blame Game“
TEXT: 2 Kings 6:24-33
24. And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
25. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.
26. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
27. And he said, If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?
28. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.
29. 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.
30. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.
31. Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
32. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him; but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door; is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?
33. And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him; and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer?
Key Verse: 2 Kings 6:31
“Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.”
DAILY MANNA DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY
Many people have been misled into taking wrong decisions with terrible consequences because they easily run out of patience and blame an innocent individual to be responsible for their predicament. From the text, Israel experienced a great famine in the days of Elisha. The famine was so intense that food became scarce and very expensive. When a woman narrated how they resorted to cannibalism due to the extremities of the time, the king was infuriated. He thought God was punishing the nation unnecessarily and decided to vent his anger on Elisha, the prophet of God.
To facilitate his threat, the king sent an executioner to Elisha who held a meeting with the elders of the land. The king eventually came to the place where Elisha was, expressing his frustration, after the executioner was stayed through the spiritual authority of Elisha. It is quite unclear why the king of Israel thought Elisha was responsible for the famine that ravaged the land during his reign. It is hard still to understand why he thought killing the prophet would be a solution. He appeared to forget or minimise his own contribution to the crisis, and did not acknowledge the sins of Israel which brought the displeasure of God in the first place.
Many times, we look away from our faults and begin our search for a scapegoat that can be blamed for our own inconsistencies and failure. The Syrians who imposed economic blockade on the nation were not the problem; neither was it Elisha. The sins of the people made God turn these enemies loose on them. We get our relief faster when we repent than when we continue in our rebellion and blame others for the consequences.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Stop searching for scapegoats; look inwards.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Lamentations 1-3
Daily Manna is the daily devotional of the Deeper Christian Life Bible Ministry (DCLM). It is an extraction of God’s Word designed to draw the sincere seeker closer to God on a daily basis through an insightful exposition and analysis of God’s Word. Read More…
