Four Outcasts and an Empty Camp

The Story

The Syrian army had surrounded the city of Samaria, and the people inside were starving. Food was so scarce that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver. Then Elisha made an impossible promise: by this time tomorrow, flour and barley would be selling cheap at the city gate. One of the king’s officers scoffed, “Even if the Lord opened windows in heaven, could this happen?”

Outside the gate sat four men with leprosy, outcasts who weren’t even allowed inside the city. “Why sit we here until we die?” they asked each other. If they stayed, they’d starve. If they went to the enemy camp, the worst the Syrians could do was kill them. So at dusk, they went.

The camp was empty. God had made the Syrians hear the sound of a great army approaching, chariots and horses thundering toward them. They panicked and ran, leaving behind their tents, food, silver, and gold.

The four men ate and drank and started hiding treasure. Then they stopped. “We do not well,” they said. “This is a day of good news, and we’re keeping it to ourselves.” They went back and told the city, and by the next day, flour was selling cheap at the gate, exactly as Elisha had said.

Reflection