One of the most brutal tactics of ancient warfare was the concept of the siege.
Instead of breaking down the gates, firing burning arrows, or releasing a large mythical beast into the city, there were times when an enemy army would set up a siege against their helpless adversaries. A siege is a waiting game that requires blocking all the entrances and exits in a city and making sure nothing gets in or out. This is would be like an ancient version of being sent to your room except a good siege always made sure that access to water and food was also completely shut off. So in a siege all an enemy army had to do was set up camp nearby, place a few guards to watch for escapees, and wait for the city they were trying to conquer to starve to death.
Given that you can technically go 30 days without food and the fact that the city would have had some food in reserve within its gates you can imagine that this would take awhile.
The people of Samaria in 2 Kings chapter 6 and 7 found themselves in such a situation.
Ben-Hadad, bully king of Aram, had besieged the Israelite city of Samaria for so long that "a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and a fourth of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver" (6:25). Now you don't have to be an expert in Hebrew weights and measures to know that's a lot of money to buy a donkey head and some dove poop. And judging by the fact that the author makes this statement immediately after describing the immense famine that the siege has caused it is safe to assume that people were buying these items to eat or else at least be involved in the food prep.
But it gets grosser. More gross? Grosslier?
It gets worse.
The author (who many scholars believe to be the prophet Jeremiah) goes on to recount the testimonies of two women who were arguing over the right to eat each other's sons. Now, this is where I tread lightly because cannibalism jokes have to be subtle if you don't want your audience to eat you alive.
I'm sorry. Moving on.
The situation was horrifically dire and virtually all hope was lost. Now there were a group of lepers who, because of the potentially contagious condition of their skin, were required to live outside the city walls. They were generally rejected by society so there was very little hope of someone remembering to come out and give them food in such circumstances. Finally, one unnamed leper speaks up and points out how ridiculous it is to sit around waiting for death when a simple solution was so obvious. He suggested that they go to the enemy camp and speak on behalf of the people and simply surrender. What is the worst that could happen? The Arameans kill them instantly instead of letting them die a slow painful death of starvation?
This seemed reasonable to the other lepers so they made their way to the feared camp of the enemy. Except when they get there nobody was around. The camp is completely deserted. The enemy that was causing so much damage was nowhere to be seen.
The lepers didn't know that God had made the Arameans hear the sound of an army of chariots that were not really there. Fearing this invisible invasion from Israelite allies, the Arameans ditched their stuff and ran as far as they could- totally abandoning the siege they had put so much time into enforcing. The lepers eventually told the people of the city the good news and they cautiously made their way out of the city to see for themselves. Most of them thought they were walking into a trap and it took some experiments and convincing to get them to finally realize they were free. The siege was over and their enemy had left them with a camp full of food and goodies free for the taking.
The siege was over.
How long would the people have gone before finding out they were free if those lepers did not go exploring? Would they have found out before starving to death? Would archaeologists have uncovered this mystery of a city full of ancient corpses that starved to death with no evidence of an enemy?
The thing is that there are some seasons in life that feel like a siege.
There are seasons of feeling surrounded by enemies and cut off from all nourishment. There are seasons of hopelessness and accepting grim realities. These seasons can last an unbearably long time. So long in fact that we often don't realize that they are over. We expect there to be victorious fanfare when God sends the enemies running but it doesn't always happen like that.
Have you just gotten so engrossed in the habit of preparing for the end that you forget to peep your head out of the hole you've hidden in and see what you are really up against? Maybe the siege is over. What if by living in an orphaned and impoverished mindset we are forgetting that God can still be up to something behind the scenes?
"Desperate times call for desperate measures" said the townspeople as they traded their wages for pieces of meat they would have never considered eating before the siege. There are certain seasons that require certain ways of life but in those dry seasons, those seasons of feeling attacked and surrounded, those seasons of feeling cut off from the nourishment you so desperately need, it is easy to pick up habits and lifestyles that continue long after the threat is gone. We starve to death because that is what we are used to and never think to look outside our own city walls to find the abundance we have been asking for.
We let our bones show through our skin and go around making deals of desperation hoping to just make it through another day when if we just opened our eyes we would see the freedom that could be ours. We sulk and pray to God in empty whispers that He would do what He said but refuse to see that He is holding out His hand trying to offer it to us.
In my life I think it is about time that I push once more against those internal city gates that I thought were holding me back and see if there really is an enemy pushing back on the other side. Before I cook up that donkey head of self pity, hopelessness, and thinking that there will never be enough maybe I should stop and look around me. Maybe I should actually look in the face of the enemy that I thought had so much control and see if he is even still there. Maybe I should consider that I have been defeated by made up enemies in my mind rather than actual ones who could put up a fight. Maybe the siege of my soul has been lifted and I don't have to walk around sulking like it's all over.
What if it really is a new season?
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