Between A Rock

Familiar with the saying, "I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place?" Most everyone finds themselves in this position - under pressure from circumstances, situations, people. It's easy to think there's no way out, I can't win, I give up.

Let's look at a few people from God's Word who definitely were between a rock and a hard place. Let's see what God does. (The passages are all from the book of 2 Kings, chapter 7.)

The Rock

...Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. The was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.

The Hard Place

... a woman cried to him [the king], "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. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and there, underneath, he had sackcloth on his body.

Wrong Answer - Blame God

No doubt the king is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one side he's under attack by enemy forces. And on the other hand, the city's food supply is exhausted, the people are starving. Some even resorted to murder and cannibalism. The society is crumbling.

The kings answer: blame God, by blaming God's prophet.

He [the king] said, "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!"

And the king said, "This disaster is from the Lord Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"

Right Answer - Trust God

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 next day, the report came from four men who visited the Aramean camp, that all of the enemy forces were dead. [See the sidebar for their story.] The king sent some soldiers to investigate. Sure enough, the report was true. The people went out of the city of Samaria and plundered the Aramean camp. And just as the Lord said, a seah of flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel.

Principle

The pressure is not your problem. Although it certainly seems like it is, it isn't. The pressure from bills, sickness, people, are not your problem.

Your response to the pressure is either the problem, or the solution. If you face the pressure with faith in God, you have the solution. If you blame God, yourself, and everyone else, you've got a big problem!

Practice

• Understand that the pressure is not the problem.
• Find God's answer in His word.
• Take you stand in faith.
• Profess God's Word as true in your life now!