Jerusalem is under judgment and under siege. The Syrian army
has surrounded them for months that have dragged on into years. All food supply is cut off
and God’s holy city is starving. This city has become the very epitome of
apocalyptic sufferings. Donkey heads and bird dung are sold for food at high
prices. The most common discord among the people: whose son to boil and eat
first. That is the level of hopelessness you see here. It is not mere death and
dying you will find inside the walls of Jerusalem. The depths of human
depravity have been plumbed. God has turned his face wholly against his people and
hope has disappeared like a solitary drop among the immense waves of suffering.
Languishing at the city gates are four leprous men. Cut off
from their people, they are left to beg for scraps and leftovers. But no scraps
remain anymore. They reason together: death is imminent. Famine reigns within
the city and the Syrian army waits maliciously without like buzzards waiting to
move in for the feast. Perhaps if they approach the Syrians, pleading for
asylum, they will be spared. Maybe they can at least be fed. So they approach
the camp, warily at twilight. Their trepidation is unwarranted for the Syrian
army has vanished. In the night, God brought against them his fearsome noise
and caused them to flee. And flee they did, leaving behind them all food and
supplies and wealth. The lepers have never been so fortunate. After assuring themselves
that the enemy is truly gone, they begin to gorge themselves on the food, and
clothe themselves in fine apparel. They carry off silver and gold to hide. They
dance with each other like children through the abandoned camp, reveling in
their turn of fortune. Never before have they been so wealthy. Yesterday they
were the lowest of beggars, waiting for death. Today, they own the wealth of
the vast Syrian army.
As they stuff their faces with food and drink, something
inside within their minds begins to prod them. Their hands stop midway to their mouths
as their consciences begin to tingle. Inside the city, millions are dying, eating
their own children. They are wasting away, trapped by an enemy that no longer
exists. They cower in fear and misery with a hopelessness that strangles the
soul. Outside their walls lies salvation. Outside the walls, life is found. The
lepers pause their rejoicing and their feasting. They stare down at the spoils they clutch. Can they continue on like
this? Can they enjoy the vast spoils alone? Can they keep the good news secret,
and still live with themselves? They have found life abundant. They have the
salvation the entire city needs. People inside are dying by the second,
tragically unaware that everything they need lies right outside their doors,
free for the taking. What can the lepers do, but tell them? What kind of wretched
injustice could allow one to sit by and enjoy such provision and not spread the good news?
The plunder of the Syrian army is more than enough to feed everyone in
Jerusalem. Not another soul has to be lost. But if no one tells them…If no one
cries aloud that salvation has been found…then all will be damned.
Christian, you are the leper. You have discovered the spoil
outside the city gates. You have been saved and enriched as never before. But
the world sits inside the walls of deception and sin, waiting for eternal
death. They are suffering intensely, devouring one another, and you have life in
your hands. You gorge yourself on blessings and amass for yourself treasures, and inside, they die. Life is waiting just outside their doors, but
unless someone tells them – unless YOU tell them – they will go on dying.
Salvation is within their grasp, but they are cowering in the heavy darkness of
ignorance. Only the most calloused and heartless of lepers could keep such good
tidings to his or herself. You, Christian, have life in your grasp, dripping
from your very fingertips. You possess the salvation this world needs. The world is
breathing its last inside the city walls, waiting to hear that life is just
outside. The enemy has been vanquished and everything they need has been provided. Oh tragedy of tragedies, if they should remain inside and die in their
ignorance, because no one came to tell them.
