For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? [Romans 10:13-14 (ESV)]
The king of Aram was at war with Israel, Samaria was under siege, and there was a great famine in the city. Even food that wouldn’t normally be eaten was prized. For example, the head of a donkey, considered an unclean animal, sold for about two pounds of silver. The situation was so dire that some people had even resorted to cannibalism. Without the intervention of God, there was no hope in sight.
Unwelcome in the city, four lepers, the outcasts of society, sat outside the city gate. The men were desperate; either they would die of starvation where they sat or violently at the hands of the enemy. Having nothing to lose, and on the off chance they might even be spared, they decided to surrender to the Arameans.
That evening, the lepers entered the enemy camp only to discover that it had been abandoned. As the prophet Elisha predicted, God had intervened; the Aramean soldiers, thinking they heard the sounds of a great army approaching, had fled the camp in panic. Although the camp was deserted, food, tents, clothing, livestock, silver and gold remained. The men went from tent to tent, enjoying the spoils as they ate and drank their fill and gathered up riches. The four then realized they had to let the townspeople know that the enemy had fled. These pariahs may well have been the last to receive any food had it become available. Nevertheless, fearful that something bad might happen to them if they didn’t share the good news and bounty of the deserted camp, they returned to the people who had shunned them as the “unclean.” The men told the city’s gatekeepers the good news that the siege was over and abundance lay just outside their gate.
We’re unlikely to be under siege and facing starvation in a walled city or to be considered “unclean” lepers and forced to sit outside the city gates, yet I wonder if this story might apply to 21st Christians. The lepers knew they were obligated to share the good news and that it was wrong not to share God’s blessings with the people of Samaria. If they hadn’t, the city could have starved while blessings lay just outside their gates. Their story teaches us about forgiveness and not bearing a grudge and is a reminder to share our blessings. Could this also be a lesson about evangelism? Do we have good news that should be shared? Do we know anything about the living water and bread of life that can feed a starving people and give them eternal life? Could those four lepers also be showing us the importance of sharing the good news of the gospel?
After years of exile, the Jews were finally returning home from their captivity in Babylon. Ezra assembled a group of 1,500 men and their families and led the second emigration back to Jerusalem. It would take about four months for the over 5,000 people to make the 900 mile journey across the desert. Since they were transporting about 30 tons of silver, gold, and bronze along with wheat, wine, olive oil, and salt, there was serious danger from marauding bandits.
An early morning rainstorm left a rainbow over the Gulf. “Oh, thank you, Lord,” I said, “That’s just what I needed.” You see, I was suffering from a serious case of the glums and gloomies. Having recently undergone foot surgery, I knew some of my blues had to do with pain, poor sleep, the nuisance of immobility, undone tasks, and “cabin fever.” Nevertheless, that didn’t seem to fully explain my melancholy. Struggling to discern its underlying cause, I’d prayed that God would lead me to the root of the problem. In my darkness, I’d also asked Him to give me a little sign that He heard my pleas. God is big on rainbows—just ask Noah—and it felt like He hung that rainbow out just for me and hope was on the horizon.
Yesterday, when writing about various translations of Scripture, I was reminded of a story about four ministers who were discussing their preferred Bible translations. The first pastor said he favored the King James because, in spite of the archaic language, its words conveyed divine power with their elegance and majesty. The second pastor noted that he preferred the Amplified Bible because its alternate readings helped clarify and broaden the meaning of the original text. Explaining that his church was made up of new believers, the third pastor said he liked the Living Bible because its modern paraphrase of traditional Scripture was easily understood by his congregation. The three men then turned to the fourth minister and asked what Bible version he favored. The man answered that his favorite translation was his father. “You see,” he explained, “He put God’s word into practice which is the best translation of Scripture that I’ve ever seen!”
Author John Greco wrote of answering a call for a 24-hour phone prayer ministry to find a man in crisis. Sobbing, the caller confessed that he was a dog breeder and that he hadn’t known that every dollar he gave to the church was a sin that made God angry. A new believer, the man had been following a Scripture reading plan with his King James Bible. That morning, he’d read Deuteronomy 23:18: “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord … for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Thinking God found his tithe from selling dogs disgusting and sinful is what had him so distraught. What the man didn’t understand, but Greco patiently explained, was that, in the Old Testament, “dog” was a euphemism for “male prostitute.” Reassuring his caller, Greco read the same verse from the NIV translation: “You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord….” The King James, being a word-for-word translation, had given the literal translation rather than the original meaning. The NIV, being about half way between word-for-word and thought-for-thought translations, used “male prostitute” with a footnote that explained it had been “dog” in the original Hebrew.
Yesterday’s devotion made me do some hard thinking about my commitment to Christian missions. Unfortunately, there are large segments of the world’s population that have never heard of Jesus. According to the Joshua Project (an organization that gathers, integrates and shares information to facilitate the implementation of the Great Commission), 41.6 % of the world’s population is considered “unreached,” meaning they have little or no history of Christianity and the number of native Christians and available resources are so minimal that outside assistance is necessary if the Gospel is going to be heard.
Devotions of the Heart 