Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, ¡°A Choice of Four Men with Leprosy.¡±
A life is a series of choices. We stand at the crossroads of choices every day. From trivial choices such as: ¡°What to eat today?¡±; to important choices such as: ¡°Who will be my companion in life?¡± There are numerous moments of choices in front of us. Your present is the result of many choices in the past. Your future is determined by what kind of choices you make today. We who believe in God must pray first before Him and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit as He leads us in each moment of life. If we disobey Him and follow our own hearts only, we will repent later.

Pastor Henry Ward Beecher testifies, ¡°Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.¡± Those who hold the handle of anxiety or alternatively the handle of faith will accordingly determine a great result in their life; some choose anxiety so they become petty and ungenerous and fail to live a successful life. However, others boldly move forward with faith even seeing a thread of hope and experience miracles and live a good life.

Today¡¯s Bible reading shows that Ben-Hadad king of Aram kept attacking Samaria. He mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. When the city was besieged, pain of hunger began due to shortage of food. Later they had to kill and eat their own children. As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall to find how miserably his people suffered, a woman cried to him, "Help me, my lord the king!" "This woman said to me, 'Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we'll eat my son.' So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but she had hidden him." When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his robes. People tear their robe in the most desperate situation. What a tragedy it is that people kill their own children and eat them!
Then Elisha the servant of God was living at Samaria. The king told his subject, ¡°Go get Elisha and kill him right away! He may boast to be the spiritual servant of God, but he couldn¡¯t bring any help from God even in this most miserable situation! What a quack he is!¡± He blamed the prophet for the national disaster. Now our country badly needs the help of Korean churches. It is time for ten million Christians to cry out for our nation and people. What God opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.
When God hears our desperate cry for our country and opens the gate of heaven,
we will prosper! When we look back on our past history, we can find that what couldn¡¯t be done was done! Now we have anxiety about our insecure present and future, but our candlelight vigil sustains order in the midst of extreme cold weather, not depending on violence but only with pure concern about making right whatever is wrong in our country. At this I feel that our country will prosper and succeed. When I look at our people express their concerns in good order without relying on violence even in their desperation, painfulness, and unfair situation, I realize God has matured us to this extent!

The city of Samaria reached the most extremely miserable situation in that parents cooked and ate their children! Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Shut the door quickly and hold it shut against the king. Don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head?"
When they went out to shut the door, the messenger came down to Elisha with a drawn sword. He said, ¡°Where is Elisha? I came here to cut his head off! He is the servant of God, but why is he needed as he can¡¯t destroy this difficulty? I came to kill him.¡±
Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"
"You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"

When we believe in God, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him--" but He will bring it to pass. If Elisha had told what was visible, audible, touchable, or thinkable, he would not have been called a prophet! We can¡¯t see, hear, or be aware of what God has prepared for us, prophets know it in advance and proclaim it to us. When God works for humans, He always does with those who are hopeful! There will always be both hope and despair in this world. We have to live with hope in one hand while holding despair in the other hand. However, there was no hope at all within the city of Samaria. They even ate their own children! Then what kind of hope could be there? God always answers to hope! On the contrary, if we lose hope, it will become worse! From the king to the residents in Samaria all lost their hope! They tried to kill Elisha who was speaking hope to them. Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. As they became lepers, they could not stay within the city so they resided in a valley or beside a brook. Their family members brought some food to feed them. But now starvation was prevalent within the city so they said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? Let us enter into the city.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous. People are dying from famine in there so where is food for us? If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. Let us sit here just waiting to die.¡±
¡°How can we just sit and wait till we die? We don¡¯t know when our enemies will retreat.¡± Then one of them said, ¡°If we die whether or not we enter the city, let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die. Let us find the final hope of life anyway." Four men with leprosy got up and put arms around each other¡¯s shoulders and moved forward. As they were sick and disabled, if one of them fell down the rest of them fell together on the ground. However, they encouraged one another and stood up again. It was amazing because when they walked together with hope, God joined them as one! While four men with leprosy walked together, God was also among them so when one of them fell, the rest encouraged him saying, ¡°Come to yourself and walk! Walk straight!¡±
Then God amplified their sound to the highest and let the armies of the Arameans hear it as follows, ¡°Hey, you great army should move in order! You charioteers, close the door and drive it! As you open the door driving, so some soldiers fell from it! Move forward. Let¡¯s be ready to fight for victory!¡± Their enemies began to hear all kinds of threatening words! When the Arameans were preparing their dinner, suddenly they heard the tramp of the marching soldiers who said to each other, ¡°Let us go fast! Rise up and stand tall!¡± They never dreamt to hear these sounds but as the marching feet of the great army gradually came close, they were horrified and said to one another, ¡°Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us! Let us flee from here right away!" So they got up and left the camp and fled for their lives in the dusk, but none of them really saw any trace of their enemies!
¡°Did you see the enemy?¡±
¡°Needless to say, a great army is behind us!¡± In order to flee from there first, they fought each other. They killed each other with their own sword and most of them were killed by attacking themselves! They all despaired and fled for their lives. Who overcame despair? It is because the four men with leprosy moved forward with hope, a great victory was given to Israel! No matter what situation of despair we may be in, we should not desert our final hope at all. Let us look into these brave four men with leprosy as they marched with boldness risking their lives.

2 Kings 7:3-4 says, ¡°Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."

Proverbs 4:23 says, ¡°Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.¡±

When despair is approaching to us, don¡¯t accept it but look up to hope and never lose hope at all, God will be with us!

Hebrews 11: 6 says, ¡°And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.¡±
Their march was a march of faith shaking heaven and earth. It is because God joined their marching to attack their enemies! As God walked together with the four lepers, it shook the whole heavens and earth! When we move forward with hope, God is surely with us!

Isaiah 41:10-16 says, ¡°So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you," declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.¡±

Even a man as fragile as a worm won¡¯t be abandoned only if God is with him!
Psalm 107:8-9 says, "Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things."
¡°Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.¡±(Proverbs 25:28)

Walls are a symbol of security so we can live peacefully within them. Without them we become helpless at the attack of our enemies as they invade us to steal, kill, and destroy us. Then a man who lacks self-control is like a city whose walls are broken down! Unless we control our hearts, the devil will penetrate our hearts and rob us of our life, kill, and destroy us. We should not tumble down or step back when we have to face any obstacle in our life. By believing in God we must move forward. Then God will divide any huge obstacles like the Red Sea and the Jordan to lead us to the Promised Land. Therefore, our faith is always advance, never retreat at all. If we step back, we are ruined!

Hebrews 10:38 says, ¡°But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."

Therefore, we believers should trust God to the end, never retreat from faith in Him. Those who truly believe in God won¡¯t collapse in despair. We must overcome despair and stand up with faith and take a giant step toward hope!