883 - Outcasts Visit the Enemy Camp

Outcasts Visit the Enemy Camp

There were four men, with leprosy, sitting at the entrance, of the city gates, (when the Arameans besieged Samaria).

“Why should we sit here, waiting to die?” they asked each other. 

“We will starve, if we stay here, but with the famine, in the city, we will starve, if we go back there. 

So we might as well go out, and surrender, to the Aramean army. 

If they let us live, so much the better. 

But if they kill us, we would have died anyway.” 

So, at twilight, they set out, for the camp, of the Arameans. 

But, when they came, to the edge of the camp, no one was there! 

For, the Lord …had caused the Aramean army, to hear the clatter, of speeding chariots, and the galloping of horses, and the sounds of a great army approaching. 

“The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians, to attack us!” they cried, to one another. 

So, they panicked, and ran, into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, as they fled, for their lives. 

When the men, with leprosy, arrived, at the edge, of the camp, they went, into one tent, after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver, and gold, and clothing, and hid it. 

Finally, they said to each other, “This is not right. 

This is a day, of good news, and we aren’t sharing it, with anyone! 

If we wait until morning, some calamity will certainly fall, upon us. 

Come on, let’s go back, and tell the people, at the palace.” 

So, they went back, to the city, and told the gatekeepers, what had happened. 

“We went out, to the Aramean camp,” they said, “and no one was there! 

The horses and donkeys were tethered, and the tents were all in order, but there wasn’t a single person around!” 

Then, the gatekeepers shouted the news, to the people, in the palace. 

2 Kings 7:3–11 (NLT)

Praise be to God!