Don’t you think it’s interesting that there were no disciples at the tomb when Jesus rose from the dead? We read that Jesus told them He would rise, but we don’t read anywhere that they believed Him.
The thing I find most interesting is that His enemies did
believe it, that’s why they placed a crack squadron of soldiers to guard the
tomb. That’s why they sealed it. That’s why they said, “We remember that that
deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.”
Even when the women who visited the tomb told the disciples
that Jesus had risen from the dead, they didn’t believe them.
Sometimes Christians struggle with believing God. There’s really no difference between believing
Jesus when He said He would rise from the dead, and believing Jesus when He
says He will pour out blessing. Today I
want to address something that I think needs to be addressed. There are things that God has spoken that seem
to be easier to believe than others. So,
in this post, I want to look at unbelief, from this portion of scripture:
2 Kings 7:1-2 (NKJV)
7:1 Then Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: 'Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.' " 2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, "Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" And he said, "In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it."
Can You Believe the Promises?
This takes place at a very bleak time in Israel’s
history. There has been a famine in the country,
so there isn’t much food available.
Things were very tough. Now on
top of that Ben Hada, King of Syria, has placed them under siege. They’re being held captive inside the walls
of the city.
In fact, people have even turned to cannibalism:
2 Kings 6:26-29 (NKJV)
6:26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!" 27 And he said, "If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?" 28 Then the king said to her, "What is troubling you?" And she answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' 29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son."
This shows how desperate the people were. All of us go through times of famine like
this. Maybe you’ve never been desperate
enough to eat your children, but you have been through times when you didn’t
think you had enough.
You’ve got the rent, food, utilities, taxes, gas, insurance,
it seems like what goes out is bigger than what comes in. Then there’s layoffs, semester breaks, down
business times. It seems like a time of
famine in your life.
Maybe in times like that you’re less open to the promises of
God. Maybe you’re like the man on whose
arm the king leans. He said, “Look, if the Lord would make windows in
heaven, could this thing be?”
He’s wondering in light of these desperate circumstances how
God can make this happen. I’ve wondered
the same thing myself – a number of times.
How can you open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing, but that’s
one of the promises isn’t it?
In our text Elisha the prophet is repeating what God has
promised.
2 Kings 7:1 (NKJV)
7:1 Then Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: 'Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.'
That by the next day, about the same time a seah (about 7
liters in volume) of flour for a shekel
(about $4.50 USD, 2025 dollars). That’s a low price
for flour, but things are so bad that people can’t believe it.
When we don’t see a way out of our circumstances, we can’t
see how God can deliver us. We judge God’s
abilities by our own, but God can do supernatural things.
That word super as a prefix means beyond. So, God can do things beyond the natural,
which is what we can do. We live and
operate in the natural, but God operates in the supernatural. God can do miracles.
Look at the circumstances of your life. Are you struggling in one area? Is there a part of your life that you think
can’t be changed? Maybe a doctor told
you there’s no treatment for what you’re suffering. Maybe, you can’t see an improvement in your
finances. Maybe you think there’s no way
you can change. You are limited in your
ability to affect change in your life, by your own abilities and natural laws,
but God isn’t affected that way. God can
transcend circumstances and nature. The
limit to what God can do for you is the limit to which you believe God.
The man in our text limits God to the natural
circumstances. He’s saying that even if
God were to open the windows of heaven, our circumstances are so bad that they
can’t be fixed. This is unbelief – It’s
a lack of faith.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Our unbelief limits God. Look how that is worded. He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards them that diligently seek Him. There
is faith in God, that is, that most of us believe in God; We believe that God
exists, but is there faith in God’s abilities?
Is there faith that God can do things and will do things to eliminate your
suffering?
You believe in God – Do you
believe He can heal you?
You believe in God – Do you
believe He can provide for you?
You believe in God – Do you believe He can change you?
Those are the promises.
The disciples believed in Jesus. They believed He was the Messiah. They believed He could do miracles. They believed that He was there to deliver mankind,
but they couldn’t believe that He would rise from the dead, even though He
promised that He would.
We’re like that, too.
We believe in God, we believe we’ve been forgiven. So, why can’t we believe God to keep His
promises? Let’s examine that.
God Keeps His Promises
Let’s examine a promise that God has made.
Malachi 3:10-11 (NKJV)
3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," Says the Lord of hosts.
This is a promise of God.
If we will do something, then God will do something. We know it’s a promise because God s saying, “Test
me. See if I will do what I have said
here. I promise that I will do this; you
can check me on it. Bring all of your
tithes and offerings into the storehouse.
Do this and I will open the windows of heaven and bless you so much you
won’t have room for it all." I wonder,
though, how many are really believing God for this promise. How many are like the man on whose arm the
king leaned, "I'm struggling, there’s a lot of expenses.” “I can’t make enough money to keep up.” “If I give more there won’t be enough.” That’s thinking in the natural and forgetting about the supernatural. “Look if the Lord
would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Look at what God did in the day of need for
Israel:
2 Kings 7:5-7 (NKJV)
.5 And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise no one was there. 6 For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses--the noise of a great army; so they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us!" 7 Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact--their tents, their horses, and their donkeys--and they fled for their lives
God made a promise that would happen the next day, but because
people couldn’t see how it could happen, they didn’t believe that it would
happen. That’s how a lot people are. “If I give more there will be less, so how can
there be more if I give more?” That’s
what the promise is, though. We can’t
see how it could happen, but God promises that it can.
Then we look at this story and we see how God did it in this
instance. He caused the Syrians to hear
the sound of chariots when there were no chariots. He caused them to panic when there was no
reason to panic. He caused them to
abandon everything, even though there was no attack. God moved outside what we think is possible, in order to keep His word, and He will do the same thing with our giving. God moved in a supernatural way and suddenly
there was abundance in the midst of famine.
You may think that if you give more there will be less, but God has
promised that if you give more, there will be more.
This whole event takes place in the midst of a famine. Did you know that there is an underlying
purpose for famine?
Amos 4:7-8 (NKJV)
7 "I also withheld rain from you, When there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, And where it did not rain the part withered. 8 So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, But they were not satisfied; Yet you have not returned to Me," Says the Lord.
The last line in this scripture gives us a clue as to that
purpose. “Yet you have not returned to
me.” God uses famine to cause His people
to return to Him. He wants people to
depend on Him. He wants people to trust
Him. If God uses famine to cause His
people to come back to Him on a national level, do you think He might do the
same thing on a personal level. Maybe you’re
in the midst of a financial famine because you’re not trusting and depending on
God. You don’t believe God can move supernaturally
on your behalf. When God is saying, “Try
me now in this,” in Malachi chapter three, He’s really saying, “Let me show you
what I can do.” God can’t show you His
response to your giving if you’re not giving.
The Reward of Faith
If we look back at our text, we can see the prophet’s
response to the man on whose arm the king leaned.
2 Kings 7:2 (NKJV)
7:2 So an officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God and said, "Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" And he said, "In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it."
He’s telling him that because of his unbelief, he will see
God move but he won’t share in God’s deliverance. Because you don’t believe there’s no
deliverance for you. It’s the same in
the promise of tithes in the storehouse, if you don’t believe you won’t receive
deliverance. If you don’t test God’s
promise, you won’t receive God’s deliverance.
Do you ever look at other people and wonder why they’re
blessed aand you’re struggling? Maybe it’s
the same answer this man received. You’ll
see the blessing but won’t share in it because of unbelief. You see those who believed receiving the
blessing, but you don’t share in it because of your own unbelief. Look at what happened to the man:
2 Kings 7:17 (NKJV)
7:17 Now the king had appointed the officer on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. But the people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.
This is a direct result of the man’s not believing God’s
promise. He saw the abundance that came about
supernaturally. He saw the promise
fulfilled, but he didn’t receive it. In fact,
something much worse happened. The man
was killed.
This is a spiritual principle. Unbelief will always lead to spiritual
death. Belief and faith brings eternal
life, unbelief brings eternal condemnation.
The man who didn’t believe ended up dead, not just that he didn’t get
blessed, he died.
Every church has seen this before. There are people who aren’t there,
anymore. They have died a spiritual
death…because of unbelief.
If you’re struggling with this, right now, don’t
despair. The promise is there for you if
you’ll just begin to believe God.
Remember Hebrews 11:6:
Hebrews 11:6b (NKJV)
11:6b for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
The first thing is to believe that God is; that God exists;
that God is a patient and loving God. Secondly, believe that if you diligently
seek Him, you will be rewarded. If you
hunt for God, God will let you find Him. God is the God who blesses.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NKJV)
9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Do you want to see God’s promises play out in your
life? Do you want to reap bountifully? This scripture is rooted in faith. A cheerful giver believes that God will
bless. One who sows bountifully will
reap bountifully. Purpose in your heart
to be a cheerful giver and God will bless you.
If you act in unbelief while others act in faith you will see the reward
of that faith in them being blessed but you will not partake in blessing. Unbelief will keep you from the blessings of
God. So, bless God and He will bless
you.
Note: I am not a
preacher of prosperity doctrine. I don’t
believe that God exists to make you rich, but I do believe in the principles
highlighted in Malachi chapter three.
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