God’s unlikely missionaries

By Rev SEIK PITOI
As a young boy growing up in the 1970s, I recall listening to many different string band songs in the local languages on the radio.
One group I recall was called the Joy Boys from Gemo Island. I found that Gemo was a leper hospital that began just before the Second World War. There, people who contracted leprosy and TB were isolated from the rest of the community while they received treatment.
I was curious to know how those poor folks, some who may have lost a finger or two to that terrible condition, could strum the guitar! But they were experts in playing instruments and their famous song “Sila” was popularised years later by the Memehusa band.
But coming back to leprosy: the sickness is an infectious disease mainly causing skin lesions and nerve damage. Also known as Hansen’s Disease, it can cause considerable disfigurement to the limbs and digits. For fear of spreading it, the patients were isolated from the rest of the community.
There are accounts in the Bible about leprosy. For example, in the Old Testament, God punished Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron who became “leprous, like snow” for speaking against Moses (Numbers 12: 1, 10), and in the New Testament, we read of Jesus healing the 10 lepers but only one came back to thank Him (Luke 17:12-15).
Lepers in the Old Testament were considered unclean and were to live outside the city gate (Lev 13:46).
One story that perfectly illustrates this, and has a lesson for Christians today, is the account of the four lepers in 2 Kings 7:3-9. The story is amazing because it shows how such destitute and rejected outcasts of society would become the objects of God’s mercy, and how they subsequently became evangelists of good tidings to a suffering community.
In Bible typology, leprosy is a picture of sin. All mankind are sinners and unclean before God (Rom 3:23), therefore, are outside of God’s blessings.That thought should be in our minds as we study this passage.
It was in Samaria, the capital of Israel (the 10 northern tribes), that the Aramean (Syrian) army laid a siege. That resulted in a great famine. The situation was so desperate that donkeys’ heads were being auctioned (even though they were non-kosher), and there was even an account of cannibalisation (2 Kings 6:25-29). The picture in Samaria was bleak.
As such, the lepers had very little choice. Their reasoning in 2 Kings 7 verses 3 and 4 shows their desperation:
They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 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.”
There was no option but to ‘surrender’. Soon, as these four men with broken bodies and disfigured hands and feet shuffled slowly and painfully towards the enemy’s camp, a miracle happened (verse 5 and 6).
When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk … and ran for their lives.
God had amplified the sound of shuffling broken feet and made it sound like a huge army was coming. Soon, the whole Syrian army fled in fear of four old lepers!
The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also(verse 8).
They couldn’t believe their luck. Here were four men who were sick, battered and starving to death, now dining at tables on the choicest food and drink that they could only dream of. After eating, they found treasures of gold, silver and expensive clothes to stack away. Their future was now secure. What more could they want?
That was when their conscience kicked in (verse 9):
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… Let’s go at once and report this….”
As they relished the moment, a conviction suddenly overcame them. They were enjoying themselveswhile others were suffering. That was being selfish, “not doing right”.
The enemy had been routed and defeated. The spoils of war were abandoned and left for the victors. The dining tables were set and were totally free of charge.
Moreover, riches and treasures were in abundance, securing the future. Surely this was “good news”, but they were “keeping it to ourselves”. They resolved to “go at once” and report the good news! There was urgency.
What lessons can we learn from this story? I believe there are challenges for believers that can be seen.
Like then, we too are experiencing a famine in our land. Not a famine of food, but a famine of the Word of God. There are Bibles galore, but the famine is in living according to the word.
Communal violence, corruption law and order problems abound in our cities and towns, showing that we have Bibles but we don’t ‘digest’ or ‘eat’ the word, allowing it to change our lives. As such, we have a population that is largely religious but not saved. We have a famine.
Just like in the story, we too are living in the days of Good News. Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification (1 Thess 4:14).
We just need to believe and receive God’s forgiveness in Christ (John 1:12). Moreover, we too have a table of blessings spread beforeus (Ps 23:4).
We have the best deal given to us by the King as we are His Kingdom subjects. And indeed, there are treasures laid up for us in heaven where our future is secure (Matt 6:20). We have every provision for our lives here on earth through Christ (Phil 4:19), and the best in heaven where we will be with Him for eternity (John 14:3).
But what about the conviction? As the lepers were convicted about enjoying the blessings while the others suffered, so should we. The religious crowd and every sinner needs to hear salvation is a free gift (Rom 6:23) and has already been paid.
Jesus called out “It is finished” (John 19:30) meaning nothing more can be done to pay for heaven. One will only ask for it, and receive it! (John 1:12).
Finally, if God can use four broken and destitute men to put to flight a whole army and evangelise their city, imagine what a handful of committed men and women of God can do in this nation. No special qualification is required to be a mouthpiece for God. You just need to be a leper (a sinner) cleansed by the Blood of Jesus (Isaiah 1:18), and have tasted from the Table of God’s salvation (Ps 23:4).
If that’s you, you have a story to tell. Go at once and tell others the good news!

• Rev Seik Pitoi is a freelance writer.