The Good News (Part 2)

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

An average person would wonder why God in His manifest wisdom should use a bunch of lepers to announce such important news to a whole nation. One hymn writer provides us with an answer: God works in mysterious ways to perform His wonders. Beyond this appreciation of how God does things, we must underline that God is supreme in the choice of vessels for the transmission of any good news or for any assignment for that matter.

In this regard, Jesus used a Samaritan woman, who did not live an exemplary life, to announce the true form of worship deserving of our God. “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24) In another instance, God used Mary, of modest origin, to bear His Son, Jesus. A Son of such calibre should have been born in a palace, but God chose a stable instead.

Very often we look at the source and not the content of the information that is being transmitted. Each time God deigns to use us as an instrument, it is a privilege. Such was the privilege given to the lepers to announce the end of the siege experienced by the inhabitants of Samaria. These people were not allowed to live within the walls of the city because they constituted a health risk. Though outcast, relegated outside the city walls, God used them as harbingers of good news – the lifting of the siege.

God can use you to be a vehicle that would spread the good news, if only you would make yourself available. There are millions of people in the world ‘under siege,’ currently blindfolded by Satan, who are ready to believe all that the devil and his cohorts are peddling. It is a ruse to confound you and to make you a candidate for hell; to deny you from your lawful rights as a child of God.

God wants to use you to open the eyes of those who are blind to the truth and essence of living on this earth. He needs you to bind the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and to release from darkness its prisoners. While it may seem like a mammoth task, all God requires of you is your willingness to get the job done. He promises never to leave you alone to accomplish the task. The presence of His Spirit will go with you always.

The good news of God’s Word is intended for the salvation of humanity. Humanity, soaked in sin and being unable to wriggle its way out of it, was in dire need of a Saviour that would not only release it from the fetters of sin and from its consequences but from the oppression of Satan as well. That Saviour came to this world in human form “and made His dwelling among us.” Human intelligence rejected Him, but “…all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:12-13)

And so the lepers, after their conviction that that was the right thing to do, “went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them.” The news was greeted with joy and relayed to the king immediately. Whilst the news was a source of relief, the authorities wanted to tread cautiously for fear that they could have been set up. Could this have been a strategy by the enemy? After consultations, five officers were dispatched on horseback to verify and confirm its authenticity. 

What did the emissaries find out? They went all the way to the Jordan and they found “the whole road strewn with clothing and equipment the Syrians had thrown away in their headlong flight.” (verse 15) They had taken to their heels, fleeing for life when nobody was pursuing them. So will it be with your enemies when God is fighting your battles for you. They will run for their lives, they will run for cover. God’s mighty right hand will put your enemies to flight. The Bible teaches that the battle is the Lord’s and the victory ours. (2 Chronicles 20:15)

The emissaries returned to report to the king that the news was true. And guess what happened? A rampage ensued. The people thronged the gate heading for the Syrian army camp and in the process trampled the king’s chief adviser who had doubted the spectacular drop in the price of grains. Thus Prophet Elisha’s prophesy came true. “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 chief adviser did not live to see it.

The last time you received some good news, how did you treat it? Did you weigh it? Was it shared? Were you very suspicious? Such good news can alter our lives permanently and make a whole difference. God’s verdict about His son is clear. As Jesus himself emerged from under the water at His baptism, a voice from heaven said. “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)