#150: “Oh, That My People Would Listen to Me!”
And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a cab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
II Kings 6:24-25 NKJV
I recently heard the heartbreaking account of a woman who grew up in a Christian home but in her teens became an alcoholic and was given over to drunkenness. Her parents, siblings, and friends pleaded with her to turn from her destructive sinful lifestyle. At 39 years of age, she was in the hospital dying of liver failure. Some of her last words were, “I want to live.” But it was too late and soon death came upon her.
One of the greatest griefs that a parent can experience is a child who grows older and will not listen to instruction. How often parents will plead with their children to turn from sin and evil to the glorious Christ of Scripture who is our light and life, joy and gladness, peace and salvation. How many parents have promised to give anything and everything for their wayward child if they would just repent and cease from sin. But many children will have none of their reproofs and exhortations. They would rather die in misery and sin than have life.
In a similar manner, the Lord Himself pleads with His children. Jesus comes to the end of His discourse with the Pharisees in Matthew 23 crying out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Jesus is reinforcing the words of the words of Psalm 81, “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries… He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.”
My people, listen to me! This is the recurring call of the Lord in His Word. The Father sends the Son that we might listen to the Son. The Spirit is sent by the Son and the Father to call us to listen to the Son. Will we listen to the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word where He may be found or will we turn from His voice, follow our own way, and find death?
A great deliverance came to Israel once again as the Syrian army was blinded, captured, and paroled. But as with all the kings before, the king of Israel was not convicted of his sin or the glory of his Creator after this miraculous event. Instead he went his own way worshipping his own gods and leading the people in all evil like his father Ahab before him. So the stubborn king of Syria brought his whole army once more against Samaria and this time not to fight against it but to starve it in a siege. And it worked.
So terrible was the siege that money became nearly meaningless. Wealth is of little benefit when food is scarce. A wretched cut of meat from the head of a donkey was being sold for 80 pieces of silver. The droppings of a dove were being sold at a high price. Neither would be sufficient to satisfy one’s body for one day but such was the plight of Samaria in this terrible siege. Why? Because Israel would not listen to the Lord their God. They would not put away their idols. They would not worship God alone. They would not Remember His Sabbath Day to keep it holy. They abused the prophets. Promoted evil. Hated good. So God gave them over to their own sin and into the hands of their enemies as He had promised.
The Lord cares for, protects, guides, shelters, all those who put their trust in Him. He defends them from their enemies. Provides meat in due season. Cares for the nursing babe, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. But those who will despise His instruction and not listen to His Word with faith and exaltation of His name, will be utterly destroyed. What follows in Samaria is an unimaginable horror. It came about for this reason: the people of Israel would not listen to the Lord their God.
As you read these dreadful verses of II Kings, listen to the Lord as He speaks. Read the Bible with faith. Plead with God for the help of the Spirit to know, understand, and love Jesus Christ who is revealed in the Word. Let the terror of these verses be a merciful warning to us. Let us not reject that warning as many have done, but head the warning and listen to the Lord. God the Father said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” Let us listen.
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