2 Kings 6:24 - Meaning and Application

This closing paragraph really belongs with the next chapter, because it begins a new story that continues there. It tells how the king of Syria, the Syrian ruler, laid siege to Samaria and brought the city into great distress. The Syrians had quickly forgotten the kindness they had recently received in Samaria, and, without any clear provocation, they now sought to destroy it (2 Kings 6:24). Some people have such base hearts that they never feel grateful for favors done to them.

The country around Samaria was likely plundered and left in ruins when the capital was pushed to the edge (2 Kings 6:25). The earlier famine in the land may have already emptied their stores, or the attack may have been so sudden that they had no time to gather food. So while the sword threatened outside, the famine inside became even worse (Lamentations 4:9). It seems the Syrians meant to starve the city rather than storm it.

The shortage was so severe that an ass’s head, which had little meat on it and was ceremonially unclean, sold for five pounds. A small amount of coarse grain, called dove’s dung, sold for five pieces of silver, about twelve or fifteen shillings. This teaches us to value plenty and be thankful for it. It also shows how little money matters when famine makes people willing to pay almost anything for food.

Next comes the sad cry of a poor woman to the king, spoken in the middle of that terrible hunger. The king was walking along the wall to give orders for the guards, the archers, and the repair of the broken places, when a woman from the city called out, “Help, my lord, O king!” (2 Kings 6:26). In trouble, where should a subject go but to the ruler, who is supposed to protect what is right and punish what is wrong?

The king gave a grim answer: “If the Lord does not help you, where can I?” (2 Kings 6:27). Some think this was an angry, bitter reply, as if he meant, “Why look to me when God himself is dealing so harshly with us?” If he could not help her from his stores or from the winepress, he would not help her at all. We must be careful not to become harsh and cross-minded when hardships come. Yet his words may also have been meant to calm her: “Let us bear our trouble as well as we can, and look to God, because until he helps us, I cannot help you.”

The king laments that the floor and winepress are empty. They are not as they once were, and even the king’s supply has failed. Just before this, we read of great provisions under his command, enough for an army, yet now he cannot feed one poor woman. Scarcity can follow very quickly after plenty. We should never be sure that tomorrow will be as full as today (Isaiah 56:12; Psalm 30:6).

He also admits, at least in effect, that he cannot help unless God does. Creatures are helpless without God, because every creature is what he makes it to be. Yet even though he could not help her, he was willing to hear her complaint (2 Kings 6:28). He asked what was wrong, as if to say, “Is your case worse than everyone else’s, or is there something unusual here?” Sadly, yes. She and her neighbor had made a horrible agreement: when food ran out, they would boil and eat her son first, then the other woman’s son. Her son had already been eaten, and now her neighbor had hidden her own son (2 Kings 6:28, 2 Kings 6:29).

This is a terrible example of how the desires of the body can overpower even the natural love of the heart. It also shows the word of God coming true. Among the judgments threatened against Israel for their sins was this very thing, that they would eat their own children’s flesh, shocking as that sounds (Deuteronomy 28:53-57). What God warned about came to pass.

Then the king turned in anger against Elisha. He was deeply moved by the disaster, tore his clothes, and wore sackcloth on his skin as one who truly felt the misery of his people and knew he could not fix it (2 Kings 6:30). But he did not mourn over his own sin, or the sins of his people, which had brought the disaster on them. He did not see that his own ways had brought this upon him. This was his own wickedness, and it was bitter. Human folly turns a person’s path wrong, and then the heart grows angry with the Lord.

Instead of ordering the calves at Dan and Beth-el to be torn down, or enforcing the law against the prophets of Baal and the groves, he swore to kill Elisha (2 Kings 6:31). But what had Elisha done? His head was the most innocent and valuable one in all Israel, and yet it was marked for death. In later times, when the Roman Empire suffered some great trouble, the blame was often placed on the Christians, and they were condemned. “Away with the Christians to the lions.” Perhaps Jehoram was angry at Elisha because the prophet had foretold this judgment, or because he urged the king to hold out instead of surrendering. More likely, he was angry because Elisha had not used prayer to lift the siege and save the city, as Jehoram thought he could have done. But until the people repented and were fit for deliverance, they had no reason to expect the prophet to pray for rescue.

Elisha knew of the king’s plan before it reached him (2 Kings 6:32). He was sitting calmly in his house, and the elders were with him, no doubt busy in wise counsel, while the king raged like a trapped bull or a restless sea. Elisha told the elders that an officer was coming from the king to cut off his head, and he told them to stop him at the door and not let him in, because the king himself was coming right behind him to cancel the order. The same spirit of prophecy that showed Elisha what was happening far away also gave him boldness to call the king “the son of a murderer.” We should not use that kind of speech unless we have such an extraordinary command from God. We must not despise authority or speak badly of those in high place. Elisha asked the elders whether he had done anything to deserve such treatment. He had not wished for this terrible day (Jeremiah 17:16).

When the king arrived and stopped the execution of his order, he spoke in great distress and confusion. He seemed torn between what he knew and what he wanted, not knowing what to say, and at last gave himself over to despair: “This evil is from the Lord” (2 Kings 6:33).

In this, his thinking was right and properly applied. It is a general truth that all punishing evil comes from the Lord, as the first cause and sovereign judge (Amo 3:6). We should apply that truth to our own situations. If all evil is from him, then this evil also, whatever we are now suffering, and whoever the human agents may be, has God as the chief actor in it.

But his conclusion from that truth was foolish and wicked: “Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” When Eli, David, and Job said, “It is from the Lord,” they became patient under it. But this evil man grew furious because of it. He was saying, “I will not fear any worse, and I do not expect anything better. Worse cannot come, and better will never come. We are ruined, and there is no help.”

It is unreasonable to grow tired of waiting for God. He is a God who judges rightly, and blessed are all who wait for him.