The Crab Mentality
ICS Daily Devotions
2 Kings 7:2 (NKJV) 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.”
At the time of this passage, Israel was facing a war with the Syrians and a famine. Elisha prophesied that the cost of living would be lowered the next day. However, the officer was doubtful about Elisha’s word because the famine was so severe that it was unthinkable and incomprehensible in his mind to believe that there could be a turnaround of the situation. It was very difficult for him to believe the word of Elisha when everything that he was seeing and experiencing was telling him it was impossible.
Today, we also need to be careful of people who cause us to doubt God. There is something called the crab mentality. If there is only one crab in the bucket, it can well escape, but if there are fifteen to twenty crabs in one bucket, none will be able to because whenever one crab attempts to crawl out, the other crabs will find a way to put it back into the bucket. The crab mentality is that nobody gets out. Similarly, there will always be a group of people who likes to discourage someone from doing greater things or having a breakthrough mentality. Therefore, if we really want to do something great and if we truly believe in it, we need to shut off these negative and pessimistic people who will attempt to discourage us.
This officer ridiculed the possibility of God’s promise coming to pass just when Elisha spoke the good news to develop faith in the people. Like the officer, many of us also struggle with having faith because we are too used to seeing is believing. While we do not deny facts and figures, we must not allow the natural circumstances to affect our faith. What the officer and the people of Israel couldn’t see after Elisha had given the word was that God was working behind the scenes to get the promise to come to pass. God would act if He had given them a promise that the famine would end the next day. In this case, God caused great fear to enter the camp of the Syrians, and for them to hear sounds of chariots so that the Syrians fled thinking that Israel had joined forces with the Hittites and Egyptians to come against them.
God will act in the spiritual and natural realms to ensure that His promise will come to pass. Although we might not be able to see in the supernatural or even natural regarding the works of God, He is working on delivering His promise to us. Therefore, do not entertain doubt!
Sermon Series: Step Out!
