Then they said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
2 Kings 7:9 (from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society)
I remember that ITN used to finish their news bulletins with an “And finally..” item – a piece of ‘good’ news intended to lighten up the proceedings after all the doom and gloom of the main news.
Lepers were the outcasts, the rejected of society in their day. A few years ago, their position in society was taken over by those suffering from AIDS; perhaps today it is drug addicts who have taken up the baton – those poor souls waiting at the side of the dispensing counter in the chemist for their methadone.
The story in 2 Kings 7 is about a four lepers who were at the end of their rope and could see that they had nothing to lose. Their city was under siege and they were dying of hunger. They decided to go into the enemy’s camp – they would either get fed or dead. Instead, the enemy fled, so the lepers started to live it up.
But then these men, who had been rejected by others and had every reason to get even by keeping their discovery a secret, had an And finally… moment. They gave some good news.
It’s strange how tables have turned. In a lot of ways, Christians are now the outcasts in society. But we know that the enemy has been defeated; we have been into his camp and taken back what he stole from us. Why are we living in a day of good news and keeping it to ourselves?
Our And finally… moment might be that last chance that someone ever has.