He answered, “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do? I have neither food from the threshing floor nor wine from the press to give you.”

2 Kings 6:27

Exhortation

The famine in Samaria became very severe, for the Aramean siege lasted too long. As a result, people were dying. No one came out of the city and no one went in (1 Kings 6:24-25).

It was so bad that two women entered a deal to cannibalized their children – a deal that went woefully wrong. The aggrieved woman appealed for justice from the helpless King of Israel who was walking on the city wall (26).

The King had no help for the woman. He could not give any timeline for the end of the famine that brought about their suffering and moved them to that basest and cruel deal – to kill their children in turns and eat them. He threw his hands up and said: “If the Lord doesn’t help you, what can I do?” (27). How so true! Jesus put it this way, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).

That’s where we are today with this COVID-19. If the Lord does not help us, we don’t know what we will do to ourselves in our homes, as the confinement tightens and prolongs. But as the king of Israel said, only God can help us.

So, let’s turn to Jesus in surrender and earnestly seek His face to bring this tragedy to an end.

The story ended miraculously. God caused the Arameans to “hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army” coming against them. They took to flight and left everything behind. Israel was delivered, and the citizens of Samaria had enough to eat and drink (7:5-7).

May the Lord cause a miracle that will roll back this virus as quickly as it came and bring relief to us, whatever that miracle will be, in Jesus’ matchless name. Amen!