I invite you to turn in your Bibles this evening to the book of Kings, in the Old Testament, the book of Kings, 2 Kings, turning to chapter 6, 2 Kings, chapter 6, where we will again give our attention to the account of Elisha's ministry to the northern kingdom of Israel. Chapter 6, verse 24 is where we will pick up. Our text this evening is a story about just desserts. Getting exactly what you justly deserve for the things you have done. Young people, if you correctly answer every question on your test, you deserve an A. An A is your just dessert. If you give a wrong answer on every question on your test, you deserve an F. An F is your just dessert. And according to the perfect justice of God, death is the just dessert for sin. As a result of Adam's fall, there is no unrighteous, not even one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And therefore, everyone ever born, you and me, justly deserves to die. As Paul says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. In our text this evening, we are given a lesson in just desserts. In particular, a lesson in the wages of sin. Wages earned by disobedient Israel. wages paid to the proud scoffer and wages averted or turned away when Yahweh saves. Let's take up the reading of God's word in 2 Kings chapter 6 beginning in verse 24. Hear now the word of God for his people. Sometime later, Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. There was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for 80 shekels of silver and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, Help me, my lord, the king. The king replied, If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the wine press? Then he asked her, What's the matter? she answered this woman said to me give up your son so we may eat him today and tomorrow we'll eat my son so we cooked my son and ate him the next day I said to her give up your son so we may eat him but she had hidden him when the king heard the woman's words he tore his robes as he went along the wall the people looked and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body he said may God deal with me be it ever so severely if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today now Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him the king sent a messenger ahead but before he arrived Elisha said to the elders don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head look when the messenger comes shut the door and hold it fast against him is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him. While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? Elisha said, Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says. About this time tomorrow, a sea of flour will sell for a shekel. and two sias of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen? You will see it with your own eyes, Elisha answered. But you will not eat any of it. 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, not a man 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 and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank and carried away 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, we're not doing 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 not a man was there, not a sound of anyone, only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were. The gatekeeper shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace. The king got up in the night and said to his officers, I will tell you what the airmans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking they will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city. One of his officers answered, Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here. Yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened. So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, Go and find out what has happened. They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a sea of flour sold for a shekel, and two seas of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said. Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died. just as the man of God had foretold when the king came into this house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king about this time tomorrow, a sea of flour will sell for a shekel and two seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. The officer had said to the man of God, Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen? The man of God had replied, You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it. And that is exactly what happened to him. For the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died. Here ends the reading of God's Word. And what an epic story. So epic I have to take a drink. As we consider this story, it's not just a story. It's an historical account that's testified to by extra-biblical authorities. The first thing we want to consider is the wages of sin earned by Israel, by disobedient Israel. The terrible and horrifying things recorded in the opening verses of our text were not random happenings. They were not bad things happening to good people. They were the wages of sin earned by disobedient Israel, just desserts for the sins that they committed against the Lord. Now, to understand, we're not told that in the text, but to understand this, we have to step back and look at the context, what's around. We have to remember what we've touched on several times, the ongoing idolatry and the apostasy of Israel and its kings. And more broadly than that, we must remember that the covenant God established with Israel at Mount Sinai was a covenant that was conditional. It had conditions. That means that sanctions were attached, just desserts attached for obedience and disobedience. And these sanctions are spelled out in great detail in the last part of the book of Deuteronomy. In verse 1 of Deuteronomy chapter 28, we read, If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, all these blessings will come upon you and accompany you. And then there's 12 verses listing all the blessings. And in verse 15, Moses continued, However, if you do not obey the Lord your God, and do not carefully follow all of His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Followed by 53 verses of curses. And at the time of our story, Israel is in violation of the covenant. And they had earned the curses of God that are outlined in Deuteronomy chapter 28. I invite you tonight to go home and read that chapter, and you will find it all right there. All the events recorded in the closing verses of chapter 6, these horrifying events, were just desserts for the disobedience of Israel. Now, if you remember last time we were in Elisha, there was a peace that had been established. Elisha had mediated for the enemies of God and established a peace, but that was now over. We're not told how long, but it's over. And no longer is Aram just poking at the borders of Israel. It's had a full-on invasion. All the armies of Aram had come against Israel, and they had forced the army of Israel to retreat within the capital city. And we're told in verse 23 that the army of Aram had laid siege to Samaria. Now, children, to lay siege to a city means to surround it. Surround is so that no one and nothing can go in or can come out. It's like being locked in your house. And all you have in your cupboards is all that you have to eat. And when it's gone, it's gone. And verse 25 tells us that this siege had lasted long enough that the food in Samaria was all but gone. The head of a donkey, the least edible part of an unclean animal that Israel was not supposed to eat in the first place, was selling for 80 shekels of silver. That's about $450. A quarter of a cab, that amounts to about the size of a cup. So about a cup of what the Hebrew calls dove's dung, translated seed pods in your text, was selling for five shekels, about $30. Israel had been reduced to eating garbage and paying for it. But that was not all. In verse 26, a woman cried out to the king as he walked the walls of the city. The king, parading the perimeter to assess their situation, perhaps to mull over their situation, was interrupted by a woman who cried out, Help me! Save me! Literally, my lord the king. And the king snapped back, which gives us a glimpse of his own despair, his own inner thought life at that moment. In verse 27 he says, If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the wine press, from the threshing floor. In other words, if the Lord does not save you, there's nothing I can do for you. The threshing floor is empty, there is no food. The wine press is dry, there is no drink. Now we need to know, and we should know, that the pressures of godly discipline will always reveal the heart of the sinner. When the pressure of godly discipline is applied, whether it's to ourselves or to someone we love, or a church discipline, or in this case to the King of Israel, it will reveal either a softened heart that will submit and repent, or a heart that is hardened and will justify its sin and rebel. What would the Lord's discipline against Israel and against her king reveal? The king was obviously feeling the pressure. He was at the end of his rope. He had nothing to offer his people and there was nothing he could do but walk the walls and wait. The distress that is apparent in his outburst, he also wore on his body. In verse 30, we see that the king was wearing sackcloth under his clothes. A rough, abrasive cloth that was worn to be an outward reminder, an outward expression of inner turmoil and distress, sorrow, repentance. Was his a godly sorrow that would lead to repentance? Well, we learn the answer to our questions when the king asked the woman, who's still standing there, waiting for a different answer than he had given. What's the trouble? And she tells her story. And we know it. It's so graphic we can't forget. She ate her son. And now the woman who promised to give her son is not keeping her end of the deal. So she's come to the king. And things are so desperate, she's come to the king and asked for justice of all things. Asked for him to decide this case in her favor. Because this woman had reneged on the deal. And when the king heard his story, He tore his ropes, not only in despair and in sorrow, but we find out very shortly also in rage. And he swore an oath in verse 31. He says, May God deal with me, be it ever so severely. More literally, may God do this to me and more. Meaning, may God tear me in two. And worse, if the head of Elisha, son of Shaphat, remains on his shoulders today. Pressed to his limit, the king despaired of his circumstances, not of his sin. Therefore, he did not submit and repent, and he did not lead his people to repent. Instead, he was angry at God, who he was unable to strike, so he struck at his servant, Elisha, who was just down the street. He ordered a messenger, an assassin, to go to Elisha's house and to take his head. Makes us think of Herod and John the Baptist. There in Elisha's house, we're told, in contrast to this king who was raging against him and against his God, the elders of Israel were sitting with Elisha. And in an unspoken display, there's no word spoken by the elders, But in this display, we see humility and submission as they sit at the feet of the prophet of God, waiting. Waiting on the Lord. And if there's any reason that's revealed in our text for why God did what he did that day and spared Israel, this is it. The king had not repented, but the elders of Israel appear to have repented. And in the presence of these elders, we learn from Elisha that the king had sent his assassin to behead him. And we also learn that the king was following right behind. Elisha asked the question, is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him? If we read that, it just doesn't sound right, but he's saying he's coming. The mood at this moment is intense and time is collapsed. There's no details. Verse 33, we have no idea how long verse 33 takes. Because it begins with the messenger coming down and it ends with the king speaking to Elisha. We don't know when he got there or what was done. The only reason we know that the king was speaking, you'll see in your NIV, there's a little bracket there. The reason we know that is it tells us in chapter 7, verse 18, that he spoke to the king and the words that he spoke. So we know the king was there. Therefore, we should understand that Elisha appealed to the elders to hold back this messenger long enough for the king to get there so that he could speak to the king face to face, which is what he did. And when the king spoke, what did he say? He said, this disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer? This is God's fault. And I'll not wait any more for him to rescue us. I'm done. And so are you. The Lord had exposed the unbelieving heart of this king. And the wages of sin had certainly been earned by Israel for their sin. And yet at this crucial moment when he attacked the Lord's anointed, Elisha answers with mercy rather than justice. This is an astounding scene. He answers with mercy instead of justice. In chapter 7, verse 1, Elisha said, Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says. About this time tomorrow, a sea of flour will sell for a shekel and two seas of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. In other words, at this time tomorrow, the city gate, you'll be able to buy for a shekel, that's about five dollars. Two gallons of fine flour. Or four gallons of barley. There will be plenty of real food at affordable prices. And at this point, the king stopped speaking. It was probably the wisest thing he did that day. But the officer on whose arm the king was leaning had something to say. And here the story turns our attention to the wages of sin that were paid to this scoffing officer, this proud scoffer. The officer was a man of importance in the king's court. Someone on whom the king relied. His proud and his unbelieving heart was exposed and revealed when he mocked the promise of salvation that Elisha had just announced. We don't pick it up from the English. It just doesn't sound like a mock, but it's a mock. He says, look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen? He's not asking if this could happen. He's not asking how this could happen. He was saying that this promise was too good to happen. It was impossible, even for God. And Elisha immediately responded to this blasphemy with an announcement of judgment. You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it. This abrupt word is followed by an abrupt shift in our story. A shift that tells us what the officer would never know. how it was that the Lord accomplished this great salvation. And we'll consider that in our third point, but for now we're going to fast forward in the story. We're going to fast forward down to verse 16. In verses 16 and 18 we find repetition. We find the telling of the same thing twice. We find a double witness to the very literal fulfillment of the Lord's promise to save His people. I could read both. I'll just read one. In verse 18, we read, It happened as the man of God had said to the king. About this time tomorrow, a sea of flour will sell for a shekel and two seals of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. 24 hours later, promise fulfilled. And we also read in verses 17 and 19, again, repetition, again for emphasis, again, a double witness to the very literal fulfillment of Elisha's prophecy of judgment on this man, This scoffer. In verse 17 we read, Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway. And he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. By God's appointment, through the appointment of this unbelieving king, this proud officer was at just the right place, at just the right time, to be judged by God, even as God poured forth his mercy on the city of Samaria. He saw it, but he didn't taste it, and he died. So it was that day, and so it will always be. Pastor Voss preached this same truth this morning from Jesus' parable about the rich man and Lazarus. The very same truth. That's how final judgment will be. See, the point here is very sharp. The point of the story at this juncture is very sharp. Do not be deceived, Paul writes. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. This officer did not believe the Lord's promise. He called God a liar. He judged God. And God judged him. This payment of wages for sin earned by this proud scoffer was a warning to the king and to Samaria and to Israel who saw it fulfilled before their very eyes. The Lord had spared them from the just deserts visited upon this man. Would they repent of their sin and return to the Lord? Or would they too mock God and despise his salvation? Well, history shows that they did mock God, they despised his salvation, so that a century later, the Lord sent the Assyrians in to finish what Aram didn't. And they destroyed Samaria, they took them all away. The ten lost tribes of Israel. The curses were fulfilled. And God's judgment on this scoffer remains a warning to all men, it remains a warning for us. It's a snapshot, it's a preview of the final judgment to come. speaking of himself in Matthew chapter 25 beginning in verse 25 Jesus Christ warned he says when the son of man comes in glory and all the angels with him he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from the goats and he'll put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared from before the creation of the world for you. And then to those who are on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, unto eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. The sheep are those who confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and who believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead for them. And the goats are the rest, proud in their own eyes, who scoff at God by despising His way of salvation, for despising Jesus Christ, for mocking Him and His saving work on the cross. Foolishness to the Gentiles, Paul says. Well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke each testify to the scoffers at the foot of the cross. But the time for scoffers is not yet through. It will continue until the day of judgment when like the proud scoffer in our text, scoffers will see the salvation of the sheep but they'll have no part in it. What a terrible, terrible torture to see the blessings, the eternal blessings as the rich man saw that Lazarus enjoyed and yet he could not partake ever. Well, we have to ask the question, why did the Lord withhold judgment on Israel that day? They deserved it. He promised it. Well, it's for the same reason He restrains His judgment today. We deserve it, apart from Christ, and He has promised it. The Apostle Peter explains it this way in 2 Peter chapter 3, beginning in verse 9. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, His promise to bring judgment. As some understand slowness, He's patient with you. not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But, Peter continues, the day of the Lord will come like a thief. But until it does, we are to bear in mind that the patience of the Lord means salvation. And therefore, I urge you today not to ignore or to despise the mercy of God that has allowed you today to hear that the wages you have earned for your sin that they will be paid to you at the final judgment. We all need to know and believe that that is true. But I also urge you to not ignore or despise what we have yet to consider. Our final point. That the wages of sin are averted when Yahweh saves. They're turned away. Back to our text. No sooner does Elisha announce the promises of salvation do we find ourselves outside the city. We're back to chapter 7, verse 3. No sooner than Elisha gives this promise that is fulfilled 24 hours later, all of a sudden we're on the outside of the city. Chapter 7, verse 3 might as well begin. Meanwhile, outside the city gate. Meanwhile, while all this other stuff is happening, this is what's going on outside. Lepers, lepers who depend on the charity of others are finding that there are no scraps. There are no crumbs. There is nothing for them. And in verse 4, we find their reasoning very clear and to the point as they conclude that their best chance to survive is to surrender to Aram. If their enemy didn't let them live, well, at least they put them out of their misery more quickly. They had nothing to gain. But theirs was the reason of hopelessness. Theirs was the reason of sight. They had lost track of who God is and what He had promised to do. But at nightfall, they carried out their plan. And when they reached the edge of the camp, in verse 5, they found that no one was there. Horses were tied, donkeys were bound, and tents were still standing, full of furnishings and full of supplies. The lights were on, but nobody was home. And in verse 8, the story picks up with them still at the edge of the camp. I want you to note that verses 5 and 8 are the same story. We're going to look at 6 and 7 in a minute. But we should understand that as we narrate the story, 5 and 8 are the same moment. They're at the edge of the camp. Now they're bold. Now they take a bite of the food they find. Not poison. They take a drink. No one's sick. So they feed themselves. They satisfy their hunger and then they look around and they start to satisfy their desires. They take gold and they take silver and they take clothing. They have no home to put it in so they bury it. And they go back to another tent and they grab some more and they go bury it. Thinking of themselves. But it wasn't long before they realized that they had better tell the king this good news, that the army was gone, that there was plenty here. If he discovered that they had kept it to themselves, he would give them their just desserts. Just as they had found plunder, punishment would find them. And so they went back to the city to inform the gatekeepers about the empty camp. It's notable that they did not say anything about what they had done there. But they told them about the empty camp. And the gatekeepers shouted the news to the city. And the news made it to the king's court. And the king was awakened. And we can understand why the king was skeptical. This was the last thing he expected to hear. And his unbelieving heart could not see any connection to what Elisha had said that afternoon. And if you remember his history well, he remembered that Joshua pulled this trick on the city of Ai. So he was pretty skeptical. But on the advice of an officer, he ordered two cherries to go out and see. To track the army of Aram and see what had happened. And they went out. They had nothing to lose. If they stayed in the city they were going to die, they went out. And they followed the tracks, and they followed the trail of debris. And they went clear to the Jordan River because they'd left the country. And it was clear that they had fled in fright. They had dropped anything that could slow them down, and they had disappeared. And while they were out on their scouting trip, in the meantime, the king took steps to prepare in case this was true. He needed to prevent chaos in the city if all of a sudden they were gone. So he appointed an officer, the proud scoffer. to the gate of the city to maintain order. And when the scouts returned and confirmed that the armies had indeed fled, verse 16 tells us that the people went out and plundered the camp. And merchants began selling food in the city gate. And there was a run on the market, a run that trampled the proud scoffer even as it fulfilled the desires and it fed the masses. What an astounding scene. Now at this moment we might be tempted to wonder why was this proud scoffer paid the wages he deserved while all those around him received mercy instead? Doesn't seem fair, does it? Isn't that what we hear when we talk about the great salvation we enjoy in Jesus Christ? Well, it's just not fair that God would choose some and not all. But you see, this is the wrong question to ask why he had to pay. Each and every one of them just like each and every one of us deserves the wages that he was paid. The question we should ask is this why were any spared? And the answer to that question is wrapped up in the good name of God. In Exodus chapter 33 verse 18 when Moses said to the Lord now show me your glory. The Lord said I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you And I will proclaim my name, the Lord, Yahweh, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. See, the why of these events is hidden in the mind of God. But we're told how. We're told how they came to pass in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 7. The very heart of our text. This whole story revolves around these two verses. And we read there the cause. For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army. There wasn't one, mind you, but they heard it. And we're told the effect. So that they said to one another, Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittites 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 they ran for their lives. The wages of sin, earned by unbelieving Israel and paid to the proud scoffer, are averted. They are turned aside when Yahweh saves. It was the Lord who accomplished this great salvation all on his own. It was he who announced it through his prophet. It was he who caused the Arameans to hear and to fear the sound of chariots from the north and the south so that they despaired and they ran for their lives. It was he who revealed this great salvation to sinners and outcasts, the lepers on the outside of the city, that they might announce it to others. And it was he who provided the idea that confirmed the truth to the skeptical king. It was he who gave the benefits of this great salvation to his people. Not because they deserved it, but because of his mercy. The events of this text are characteristic of God's way of salvation. And in them we see a picture of the great salvation the Lord has promised and accomplished in Jesus Christ. You see, at just the right time, while we were still sinners who deserved the wages of our sin, it's God who intervened to save. It is He who sent His only begotten Son in the flesh to accomplish a complete salvation for His people. It was He who announced His promise through His prophets, who predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was He who caused His Son to suffer death at the hands of sinful men. It's He who revealed His great salvation to sinners and outcasts. Not only in the Bible times, we read about them in the Gospel, but also to you and to me, scoundrels all. It's He who confirmed Christ's resurrection from the dead to the skeptics, to Thomas, to all the disciples, to the apostles, to 500 at one time, Paul says. And last of all to Paul. It is He who by His Holy Spirit gives His benefits to His people. Not because we deserve it, but because of His mercy. It is He, the person of Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our just desserts, the eternal death earned by our sin. He took it on Himself. And it's He who by His righteous life earned the just desserts of eternal life that He gives to us who believe in Him. You see, for all who trust in Christ alone to save you from your just desserts, you will not suffer eternal death with the wicked, who will see but not taste the salvation of God. Instead, according to Psalm 91, with Christ as your refuge, as your fortress, you will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. That's God's word. That's God's promise. Let us thank him for it in prayer. Our God in heaven, we are humbled this evening by the story that you have unfolded before us in your word. A dire chapter in the history of Israel. graphic in detail and overwhelming in the despair that it would bring upon one who would have to suffer such a thing. We know, Father, from Your Word and from all that we know of You from that Word that Your character is just and that there was nothing unjust in what took place in Samaria that day. It was the just deserts for sin. It's a just desert for Israel's denial and rebellion against your covenant with them. And Father, we must admit that when we look at the proud scoffer, that we must say that, but for the grace of God, there go I. For apart from Christ's saving work, he got exactly what we deserve. To see your blessings, but enjoy your judgment. And we thank you, Father, that in this dark hour, you saw fit to make sure that we know and that all your people know that you are the God who saves. You are the one who intervenes for your people. You are the one who takes upon yourself in Jesus Christ the just deserts for our sin. Humble us by that, Father. To know that it is what he has earned. The wages for his righteousness, eternal life, He gives to us, not because we've deserved it, but because of His mercy and according to Your grace. Thank You, Father. Make us mindful of this truth, that we might live in it. To the glory of Your name and to the strengthening of our faith. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.