Ben-Hadad’s Siege of Samaria
January 28, 2022
Commentary
Some time after the events just related, Ben-Hadad tried again to defeat Israel. This time he mobilized his entire army and besieged Samaria (v. 24). This kept up until there was nothing to eat in the city (v. 25) It was so severe that one donkey’s head, unclean to the Israelites, became a highly valued commodity. One day as Joram (the king of Israel) was walking along the top of the city wall a woman shouted to him, “your Majesty, can you please help me” (v. 26)? Sarcastically he told the woman that he could not provide bread or wine; he was not greater than God (v. 27).
The woman then told the king, “Another woman and I were so hungry, that in desperation, we agreed to eat our sons (v. 28). She said that her friend had persuaded her to cook her son first but the next day, when the friend was to cook her son she had hidden him (v. 29). Learning the desperate extent to which the siege had driven his people, the king angrily tore his robes, an expression of deep distress and sorrow (v. 30). But Joram’s repentance seems to have been rather shallow in view of his attitude toward God’s servant Elisha (v. 31). Rather than dealing with the real cause of God’s discipline and his own apostasy, Joram blamed Elisha and swore to put him to death that very day.
Elisha was home and the important leaders of Israel were meeting with him (v. 32).Warned by God, Elisha announced that the king was sending someone to kill him. The prophet’s instruction to the elders was to bar the door against the executioner. The messenger arrived and said, “The king has concluded the Lord has caused all these things to happen, so why should He help us now” (v. 33)?
Application
I want to be prepared spiritually for the Lord to return in the rapture and eagerly waiting for Him.
Isaiah 62:1– 12 (NET)
1 For the sake of Zion I will not be silent; for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines brightly and her deliverance burns like a torch.
2 Nations will see your vindication, and all kings your splendor. You will be called by a new name that the Lord himself will give you.
3 You will be a majestic crown in the hand of the Lord, a royal turban in the hand of your God.
4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,” and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.” Indeed, you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” and your land “Married.” For the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married to him.
5 As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
6 I post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. You who pray to the Lord, don’t be silent!
7 Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
8 The Lord swears an oath by his right hand, by his strong arm: “I will never again give your grain to your enemies as food, and foreigners will not drink your wine, which you worked hard to produce.
9 But those who harvest the grain will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”
10 Come through! Come through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build it—Build the roadway! Remove the stones. Lift a signal flag for the nations.
11 Look, the Lord announces to the entire earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘Look, your deliverer comes! Look, his reward is with him, and his reward goes before him!’”
12 They will be called, “The Holy People, the Ones Protected by the Lord.” You will be called, “Sought After, City Not Abandoned.”
Illustration: Jim Cymbala At Brooklyn Tabernacle
Jim Cymbala began at the Brooklyn Tabernacle as an under-educated, time-strapped preacher who led a second congregation in New Jersey. The church had no money to pay him, a ramshackle building, and barely enough attendance to bother with weekly meetings. Today, the Tabernacle hosts around 6,000 spirit-filled worshipers. The difference came when Jim, in a moment of desperation, set aside his planned message and called the church to pray. The weekly prayer meeting, not the Sunday worship, became the focal point of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. (Source Unknown)