2 Kings 6:24-31 – The need to appraise life rightly

Second Kings 6:24-31 describe the Aramean’s invasion of Israel. Instead of sending marauding bands to raid and plunder different towns in Israel, this time the Aramean army besieged Samaria. The siege brought about a famine in Samaria.  The intention of the king of Aram was to starve the people of Israel into submission. What the Arameans did caused inflation and drove up the prices of food. So costly were things that even prices of unpleasant stuff such as a donkey’s head and dung of doves were driven up. Some people had interpreted the dung of doves as a type of beans. But it is better to take it literally to mean the waste of doves. The donkey’s head and dung of doves were to show how bad the condition at that time was. The people could barely survive. They even had to go for things that they would ordinarily not eat.

So desperate was the condition of Samaria that when the king of Israel was passing by the wall that a woman cried out to him for help. Verse 27 recorded the pathetic response of the king. He was at his wit's end for the whole land was deprived of food. The king was evidently blaming God for their predicament. He was telling that woman that if the LORD would not help them where else could he find the food to feed them. Having made those negative remarks, the king turned and asked what her problem was.

The dilemma she brought up was much like the problem that Solomon had to deal with in the early years of his reign. Two women came to Solomon, each claiming that a living baby was hers. Solomon in his wisdom managed to solve the problem. For more details read 1 Kings 3:16-28. However, this present story in 2 Kings 6:28-29 was also about two women. The seriousness of famine in the land had led them to act atrociously. For survival, they agreed to eat the flesh of their children. They made a pact to eat their children one after the other for survival. So they boiled the first woman's son and ate up the flesh. On the next day when it was the turn for the child of the other woman to be eaten, she refused to honor the pact. Hence the first woman called out to the king, seeking his help to adjudicate the situation. When the king heard her account, he was angry and blamed Elisha for their quandary and swore to apprehend and have the prophet killed that day.

Evidently, the king had put the blame on Elisha for what the nation was going through.  He had quickly forgotten the numerous times Elisha had helped to solve the nation’s problems. The king obviously had failed to see himself as the problem. It was he and his ancestors’ unfaithfulness to God that had put the nation in this mess. It was their idolatrous worship that had brought about the chastening of the LORD. In times of trouble, there is a tendency for people to look for scapegoats without realizing that they themselves could be the problem. In life how we see the problem is often the problem itself. Failing to see the real problem, the king saw Elisha, his best asset, as his liability. Lest we mistake our best talent as our burden, there is a need to rightly appraise our lives in every difficult circumstance. Don’t live life in delusion!