Something to Chew on

Last Sunday, there was a guest preacher speaking on II Kings 6:8-23. It's a passage in which the King of Aram is at war with Israel and decides to kill Elisha, the prophet of God. Elisha asks God to let his control-freak friend see that there are invisible armies of God surrounding them. Elisha then asks God to strike the Arameans with blindness, then leads them to the king of Israel. The king of Israel says, "Can I kill 'em, Elisha? Can I, can I, pretty please? I'll be your best friend and stop trying to kill you." Elisha says, "No, let's throw a big feast for them, then let them go." So, the Arameans leave and stop raiding.

The preacher's application of the passage was to the effect that, rather than being mean to people you don't like (or who don't like you), why not invite them over for a meal? It could help establish a deep friendship.

Well, I was feeling pretty psyched about the idea of inviting people over and getting my wife to cook for all of them, but I was a little curious if the Arameans showed up again in II Kings--maybe Israel would be under attack, and a bunch of Arameans say, "Hey, weren't those the guys who fed us once? Who's up for a little carnage and possibly our own deaths? Let's go save them!" So, I took a look. It turns out they do show up again, in the very next part of the chapter. Three years pass, and a famine is ravaging Samaria (a region in ancient Israel), so the Arameans decide to starve the people out. The King of Israel rides by to wave hello to the various starving people, and a woman cries out, "Help me, my lord the king!" Ever the sweet-talker, the king replies, "If the Lord's not helping you, how am I?" Knowing the king's soft spot, she gives her sob story: she had her son over for dinner ... I mean that in the most cannibal sense possible.

My first thought while reading this later passage was that the sermon was much more inspiring if you didn't read it. The whole, "Feed your enemies and preserve their lives, so that later they can starve you until you are driven to eat your own children" is a little new for me. But after further thought, I like to think that the sermon's basic message is not only salvagable, but more challenging in context. Sure, I'm all over the "shrewd manager" parable (Luke 16:1-9) where you give away someone else's money so you can make friends and have power, but "Love your enemies, even if they trample over you" is harder to do. And it's significant that God doesn't abandon the Samarians in the siege: God delivers them in the next chapter (II Kings 7:7). I like to think that an indirect application of the chapter as a whole is that, "No matter how hard things get, God is still protecting you, so please do not eat your own children, or anyone else's, even if they are Arameans."