ICS Daily Devotions
Surround Yourself With Faithful People
2 Kings 7:2,19-20 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.”….Then that officer had answered the man of God, and said, “Now look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “In fact, you shall see it with your eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.
As Christians, we need to be watchful of who we surround ourselves with, because we need to be with men and women of faith when have we heard from the Lord. Negative people will find a problem with every solution, and those who are negative and lacking in faith will affect the flow of God and threaten the plan of God from coming to pass in our lives. Even Jesus had to remove negative or faithless people from the room when He needed to raise a child from death (Mark 5:40), and surrounded Himself with only Peter, James and John.
The officer in this passage was full of doubt, unbelief and even mocked the promise of God uttered by the prophet. The fact that the king leaned on this officer’s hand means he was a very close aide de camp — a trusted man in the palace who had influence over the king. Sadly, he was trampled dead at the gate when the people rushed out to get food, according to what God had spoken through the prophet. Perhaps the king was negatively influenced by the officer or perhaps he talked the king out of believing God!
2 Kings 7:13. And one of his servants answered and said, “Please, let several men take five of the remaining horses which are left in the city. Look, they may either become like all the multitude of Israel that are left in it; or indeed, I say, they may become like all the multitude of Israel left from those who are consumed; so let us send them and see.”
Thankfully, one of the king’s servants was more sensible than him during a time of crisis, and he helped the king make the right decision that eventually brought forth the breakthrough in the famine. So, let’s ask ourselves, are we surrounding ourselves with the right people?
Sermon Series: The Four Lepers, the Offer and the King
