The missing piece: How to respond when God is slow to act

Have you ever wondered why it is that God sometimes fixes a problem in our life quickly and reveals His hand in obvious ways, while we struggle on in other matters waiting for help but without relief? If you have, you are not alone. While we cannot always know why God acts in these ways, nor control the outcome, we can learn godly ways to respond to adversity. In our reading, we see a negative example of the king of Israel who faces the Aramean siege in the city of Samaria and his attitudes can help us recognise some of our own gut reactions when things do not go our way. It also raises the challenge for us to ask how we can respond better when God seems to be slow in taking action.

Dire straits

The incident follows on from the previous story (note the connecting ‘after this’, 2 Kings 6:24). While the incursion of Aramean troops into Israelite territory abated after that occasion, we are back to war in our current reading. Ancient sieges were protracted affairs because walled cities were not easily scaled or destroyed. Thus, the city was usually sealed off until the people starved and surrendered. As our story opens, the famine is so severe that an unclean donkey’s head, which would have precious little edible meat on it, is sold for almost 1 kg of silver (2 Kings 6:25)! It is uncertain if the dove’s dung mentioned (v.25) was intended to be eaten (some argue that it was the name of a wild plant) or if it was used for fuel. In any case, the situation is desperate. Even more chilling is the woman’s story who relates the boiling of her son without any maternal emotion and is only outraged by the injustice of the other woman not giving up her son as agreed (2 Kings 6:28-29).

A gamut of emotions

The king’s reaction is first of all, despair. He recognises that only the Lord can help but he has no confidence that He will (2 Kings 6:27). Horrified by the cannibalistic mother’s story, he tears his clothes in an expression of grief revealing the sackcloth he is wearing underneath, another sign of mourning (2 Kings 6:30). His despondency turns to anger directed this time against Elisha (2 Kings 6:31). Perhaps the king remembers how the prophet sent the Aramean troops back in the previous incident (2 Kings 6:22) and blames him for the current siege. Elisha knows of the king’s murderous plan but also anticipates that he will come in person to challenge the prophet, so barring the door stops the arrest and allows for an exchange with the king himself (2 Kings 6:32). It seems that Elisha counselled the king to wait for the Lord, but he no longer has the patience to do so and blames God for the catastrophe (2 Kings 6:33).[1] Yet at this point of utter desperation, Elisha offers a word of hope. By the following day, the situation will have altered entirely: there will be edible food at acceptable prices (2 Kings 7:1). The royal official is highly sceptical of such a swift change, even if God should give rain (opening the windows of heaven, 2 Kings 7:2), crops could not grow so fast.[2]

The missing piece: how to respond when God is slow to act

This story shows us the gamut of emotions we might feel when God is slow to act to help us. There’s despair, despondency, anger, blaming people, blaming God, impatience and a desire to give up. Yet it is often in those moments of greatest darkness that the message of hope comes, like the morning star appearing in the night sky. The incident here also challenges us to ask how we could act differently. Elisha’s advice to the king seems to have been to wait (2 Kings 6:33) and the Hebrew root yḥl (‘wait’) is associated with endurance and hope (e.g. Ps 42:11, NASB ‘hope [yḥl] in God’). It is natural, of course, to feel the way the king does, and God understands. Nevertheless, prayer – a turning to God – is noticeably absent in our story and it is the missing piece in our reaction to difficulties. It is our weapon for change: in our heart as we pour out our despair to Him and seek Him for hope and endurance, and in our circumstances as we ask God to act on our behalf.

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[1] The Hebrew noun raʿah means ‘bad’ and context determines if this means disaster, catastrophe or moral evil. Here the sense is clearly the former.

[2] Israel thought of the sky/heavens (same word in Hebrew) as a firm dome-like shape with windows that allowed the waters above to be released. See Gen 1:6-8, where the waters above the expanse or firmament are separated from the waters below. When the flood comes, it is described as ‘the windows [NASB ‘floodgates’] of the heavens were opened’ (Gen 7:11).

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