A siege of ancient Samaria caused a terrible famine. The Arameans had surrounded the city for so long that its inhabitants were paying outrageous prices for despicable food. A donkey’s head cost 80 shekels of silver. Some mothers resorted to cannibalism, boiling and eating their own children.
The horror ended when the Lord made the Aramean soldiers “hear the sound of chariots, and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, ‘Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come upon us'” (2 Kings 7:6). The terrified Arameans abandoned their well-supplied camp and “fled for their lives” (v. 7). Four leprous men were the first to discover the enemy’s absence. Incredulous with joy, they entered a deserted tent, ate to their fill, and took whatever treasures they found.
After plundering a second tent, the lepers paused to consider their actions. “We are not doing right,” they concluded. “This day is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us” (2 Kings 7:9). Feasting while the entire city of Samaria starved was wrong.
The lepers’ words convey an important message for us: It’s not right to keep good news to ourselves. When something wonderful happens—a graduation, an engagement, a wedding, the conception or birth of a child, a new job—we “tell the world.” Are we telling the world the good news that God loves us, that he gave his Son for us, that Jesus is coming again to take us home to heaven, and that the Seagoville congregation is an amazing family of loving believers who will encourage us to be faithful and grow?