Focus 2020 – The Great Commission: Perspectives from LeadersSample

A Day of Good News 

Bible passage:  

Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.” At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for 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!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold, and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also. 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. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.” So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace. (2 Kings 7:3–11) 

We are all prone to hoard. When my kids were young, they all had a propensity to hold as many snacks as possible in each of their hands. I would drop a handful of cheerios on their tray and as soon as I would let them go, they would grab as much as each of their hands could hold.  No amount of assurance would ease their grip of their precious treats; very cute in little kids, less so in adults.  

In times of crisis, fear, and worry, we see this hoarding instinct take over. We find ourselves stockpiling our resources, our wealth, and yes, even toilet paper. We find ourselves caught up in the anxiety of our world and let its paradigm dictate our behavior. But in this passage, God reminds us that the story of His kingdom is not like the story of this world.  

In our passage, we find four lepers who are caught between two fighting forces. An enemy encampment on one side and a city that has rejected them on the other. As the enemy had laid siege upon the city, desperation had come upon them and the city inhabitants. And in a moment of total desperation, the four lepers decide to wander into the enemy camp. But unbeknownst to them, the LORD had caused the entire enemy to flee. The people were freed of the siege, they just didn’t know it yet.  

As these four lepers wander into the camp, they find tent after tent abandoned along with all their treasures, food, and drink. And they do what all desperate people do, they begin to gorge themselves, storing the treasures, and hiding some as well. But in a moment of clarity they uttered these words in verse 9, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.” Even as they had been rejected by the city they called their own, even as they served a king that was evil in their sight, even as they lacked things for themselves, they understood that to hoard the freedom that God had brought while others in the city were left to their own self destruction just wasn’t right.  

Like the lepers, some of us may be outcasts, broken, and rejected, but unlike the lepers, we serve a good King in Jesus. And our only task is not to fight, argue, or coerce, but as broken people share the grace and freedom that God has delivered to us to people who are hungry and blind in our world. The Great Commission calls us to go far and wide to herald the good news of deliverance, the good news of grace, the good news of blessing found only in Jesus Christ, our Lord.  

For today is a day of good news and it is not right for us to hoard it just for ourselves. 

Quote: “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) 

Question: For love of our neighbor, what are the things in our lives that God is calling us to move from a place of hoarding to blessing? 

Soon Pak 

Pastor of Discipleship, Ward Church