The Economics of Faith and Unbelief Text: 2 Kings 7:1-2
Introduction: A Tale of Two Economies
We come this morning to a passage that is intensely practical. We are in the middle of a horrific famine in Samaria, a famine so severe that mothers are boiling their own children for food. The king of Israel, Jehoram, is at his wit's end, clothed in sackcloth, and has just sworn a rash and bloody oath to take off Elisha's head, as though the prophet were to blame for the consequences of the nation's sin. This is the backdrop. Utter desperation. The laws of supply and demand have been pushed to their absolute, cannibalistic extreme. The economy of man, founded on rebellion against God, always ends in some form of self-consumption.
Into this black hole of despair, the word of the Lord comes through Elisha. And it is a word that is utterly unbelievable, economically absurd, and frankly, offensive to the well-fed cynic. God promises a complete reversal of the market in twenty-four hours. He is about to crash the famine market and flood Samaria with abundance. This is not a stimulus package; it is a creative act of divine power. God is going to make something out of nothing.
And in this moment of crisis and promise, we are presented with two competing economies, two ways of calculating reality. The first is the economy of faith, which banks on the infinite resources of a God who speaks and it is done. The second is the economy of unbelief, which looks at the empty shelves, the locked gates, and the enemy army, and concludes that God's promise is laughable nonsense. These two economies are always at war, not just in ancient Samaria, but in our own hearts, in our families, and in our nation. Every decision we make is an investment in one of these two markets. The question this text forces upon us is simple: which ledger are you using? Are you calculating according to the spreadsheets of earth, or the balance sheet of Heaven?
The Text
Then Elisha said, “Listen to the word of Yahweh; thus says Yahweh, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’ ”
And the royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Then he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”
(2 Kings 7:1-2 LSB)
The Audacious Word of God (v. 1)
We begin with the prophet's declaration, which cuts through the despair like a thunderclap.
"Then Elisha said, “Listen to the word of Yahweh; thus says Yahweh, ‘About this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’ ”" (2 Kings 7:1)
Elisha begins by demanding their attention: "Listen to the word of Yahweh." He is not offering his own economic forecast. He is not giving his best guess. He is a herald, delivering a message from the King. This is the foundation of all true faith. Faith does not arise from our feelings or our circumstances; it comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Elisha makes it plain that what follows is a direct quote: "thus says Yahweh." This is God speaking. This is reality speaking.
And what is the word? It is a promise of staggering, miraculous provision. A seah of fine flour, about seven liters, for a shekel. Two seahs of barley, a less refined grain, for the same price. To understand the shock of this, we have to remember the price of goods just one chapter before. A donkey's head was selling for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter-liter of dove's dung for five. Now, God promises an overnight crash in the price of starvation and a glut of fine flour and barley. This is not a gradual market correction. This is a divine demolition of the existing economic reality.
Notice the specificity. "About this time tomorrow." God puts a deadline on His promise. This is not a vague "things will get better someday." It is a testable, falsifiable prophecy. God is putting His own credibility on the line. By this time tomorrow, either Elisha is a fraud and Yahweh is a fiction, or He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth who commands the cattle on a thousand hills and holds the wealth of every nation in His hand.
The location is also specific: "in the gate of Samaria." This is where the market was held, but it was also the point of constriction and control. The gate was locked tight because of the Syrian siege. God says that at the very place of their imprisonment and lack, there will be a bustling market of abundance. God doesn't just promise to solve the problem; He promises to solve it right where the problem is most acute. He loves to turn bottlenecks into blessings.
The Sophisticated Scoffer (v. 2)
The response to this glorious promise is not faith, but a cynical, worldly-wise scoff. And it comes from a man in a position of power.
"And the royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”" (2 Kings 7:2a)
This man is a "royal officer," a trusted advisor. The king is physically "leaning" on his hand. This is a picture of the arm of the flesh. The king is trusting in his man, his system, his earthly support structure. And this man, this human crutch, is a thoroughgoing materialist. He hears the promise of God and immediately runs it through his secular, zero-sum-game calculator.
His response is dripping with contempt. "Behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?" This is not an honest question. This is sarcasm. He is mocking the very idea of supernatural intervention. He is saying, "Elisha, even if your God could punch holes in the sky and pour grain out like rain, it still wouldn't be enough. Your promise is absurd." He has done the math. The city is starving. The enemy is outside. There are no supply lines. From a human point of view, his assessment is perfectly logical. It is the wisdom of this age. But the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God.
This officer's sin is the sin of educated unbelief. He cannot imagine a solution that does not fit within his closed system. He has a God-shaped box, and he has determined its dimensions. If God cannot work within the parameters that he, the royal officer, has deemed reasonable, then God cannot work at all. This is the essence of modernism, of secularism. It is the worship of the predictable. He sees the world as a closed loop of cause and effect, with no room for a transcendent Creator to act. He has forgotten that the God who made the world out of nothing can certainly feed a city out of nothing.
The Terrible Judgment (v. 2b)
Elisha's response to this mockery is swift and terrible. It is a sentence pronounced.
"Then he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”" (2 Kings 7:2b)
This is one of the most chilling judgments in all of Scripture. God's judgment on this scoffer is not that he will be struck blind or deaf. It is that his senses will be perfectly intact. He will see the promise fulfilled. He will see the flour and the barley. He will see the joy on the faces of the starving people. He will witness the entire miracle with his own eyes. But he will not partake. He will see the feast, but he will starve.
This is the precise nature of the judgment that falls on all who scoff at God's promises. Unbelief does not prevent the promise from coming true. It only prevents the unbeliever from enjoying it. The sun shines whether the blind man sees it or not. The feast of God's salvation is prepared whether the cynic comes to the table or not. The kingdom of God advances whether the worldly-wise approve or not. God's purposes are not subject to a veto from the king's chief of staff.
This man's punishment was to be Tantalus in the flesh. He would be tormented by the very blessing he mocked. And as we know from the end of the story, this is exactly what happened. In the stampede for the food at the gate, this officer was trampled to death. He saw the provision, but he did not eat of it. His unbelief did not stop the flood of God's grace; it only ensured that he would be drowned in it.
Conclusion: Seeing and Eating
This story sets before us a stark choice. We are all in the besieged city of this world. We are surrounded by enemies: sin, death, and the devil. The resources of this world are running out. The wisdom of men offers no real hope, only managed decline and, ultimately, cannibalistic despair.
And into this siege, God speaks His audacious promise of salvation. He declares that through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ, there is an abundance of grace. There is fine flour, the bread of life, offered freely. There is a feast of forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life, and the price has been paid in full. He says, "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!" (Isaiah 55:1).
The world, leaning on the arm of its experts and advisors, hears this and scoffs. "Behold, if God should make windows in heaven... Can a man be born again? Can a dead man be raised? Can a sinner be made righteous? It is a preposterous fairy tale." The sophisticated unbeliever looks at the data, trusts the science, and concludes that the gospel is foolishness.
And God's word to that scoffer is the same as it was to the officer in Samaria. "Behold, you will see it." On the last day, every eye will see Him. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The scoffers will see the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. They will see the marriage supper of the Lamb. They will see the saints feasting on the goodness of God for all eternity. They will see with their own eyes that every promise God ever made has come true in glorious, overwhelming abundance.
But they will not eat of it. They will be outside the gate. This is the very definition of Hell. It is not annihilation; it is eternal exclusion from the presence and the provision of God, with a full and agonizing knowledge of what you have forfeited. It is to see the feast and to starve forever.
Therefore, the call today is simple. Do not be the officer. Do not lean on the arm of flesh. Do not trust the cynical calculations of a world that has locked God out. Listen to the Word of the Lord. The promise is for you. The gate is open. The price is paid. Believe the audacious, unbelievable, glorious good news of Jesus Christ. Come, and see, and eat, and live.