THE BAD AND THE GOOD

Good news is meant to be shared.

Salary increase. Job promotion. Miraculous healing. Amazing provision. Long awaited pregnancy. Answer to prayers.

When we don’t share it, we rob people of the joy being inspired more so rob God the glory that is due Him.

In 2Kings 7, four lepers were in the middle of a famine in Samaria because food supply was cut off by Aramean army who was taking seige of the city. Positioned at the entrance of the city gate because they are considered ceremonially “unclean”, they had 3 options in the middle of the famine. Die of hunger outside the city gate, die of hunger in the city gates or go to the Aramean camp who’s army surrounds them and die by the sword unless shown mercy.

Their options were to die, die or die. It will be just a question of how.

But if they find favor, they will be allowed to live.

So they decide to go to the camp. To their surprise, the camp was empty. No one was there but everything was still there.

Doritos with the salsa on the table, iPad still plugged on the outlet, TV was on in HBO, coffee brewing in the pot.

What happened?

The Bible says, “… the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” (2 Kings 7:6)

Because of this, they ended up with lots of food and lots of treasures (gold, silver, etc.)

After a whole night of feasting, they talked among themselves…

Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.” (2 Kings 7:9)

They either suddenly grew a conscience or they received divine revelation about their situation.

But for whatever reason they said what they said, it was good to realize, “what we are doing is not right… this is a day of good news.”

All of us are like the 4 lepers.

While we are not in a physical famine, we are in a spiritual one.

The lepers were dejected, disconnected and doomed.

Dejected because they were unclean and considered untouchable.
Disconnected because they were told to stay away from everyone else, thus only allowed to be outside the city gates.
Doomed because of the imminent famine, hunger will slowly eat them up. (Pardon the pun.)

Spiritually, we are dejected because we are unclean.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

We are also spiritually disconnected … because of our sin.

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

And we are doomed.

“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

But because of His great love, we were rescued from this condition. Jesus saved us from dejection, disconnection and damnation.

God demands more than we could ever think YET He offers more than we could ever imagine.

We will never genuinely appreciate how good the good news is until we realize how bad the bad news is.

Concurrently, how passionate we are in sharing the good news is dependent on how deeply we understand how bad the bad news is.

 

 

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