2 Kings 7:3-8 Now there were four lepers sitting outside the city gates.
“Why sit here until we die” they asked each other.
“We will starve if we stay here and we will starve if we go back into the city; so we
might as well go out and surrender to the Syrian army. If they let us live, so much
the better, but if they kill us, we would have died anyway.”
So that evening they went out to the camp of the Syrians, but there was no one there.
For the LORD had make the whole Syrian army hear the clatter of speeding chariots
and the sounds of a great army approaching…So they panicked and fled into the night,
abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else. When the lepers arrived at the
edge of the camp they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out
silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. [Living Bible translation]
Summary:
In Biblical times leprosy was a terrible thing. It was incurable. It was contagious. People inflicted with leprosy were forced into social isolation. During Biblical times, a person with leprosy was forced to live outside the city gates. They were not allowed to attend “church.” The religious leaders of that time wanted nothing to do with them because they were considered ritually “unclean.” In fact, a person with leprosy was required to yell out “unclean, unclean” wherever they went, so that others could avoid contact with them. Lepers often had to rely on the charity of others for food and water.
In 2 Kings, four lepers, who had banded together outside the gates of their city, found themselves in what seemed to be a hopeless situation. Not only were they lepers, driven outside the city gates with a dreaded disease, but their city was in the midst of a famine and there was an enemy Syrian army was camped nearby, threatening the city.
The men gathered together and contemplated their situation. If they went into the city, which they were forbidden to enter, they would die from the famine. If they stayed where they were, they would starve to death because the city gates were closed as an enemy army nearby. If they went and surrendered to the Syrian army, they could be killed. The men probably could have “contemplated” their situation, argued with each other or just succumbed to what seemed like a hopeless situation and just complained and worry. They could have done nothing and just continued to sit and wait for whatever was going to happen. In other words, they could have just “given up,” and waited for death. They could have cried. They could have spent a lot of time just feeling sorry for themselves. They could have cursed or screamed about the “unfairness” of “their lot in life” or complained “why is this happening to me.” They could have spent a lot of time “just talking.”
But, instead they decided to act. They decided to take a walk over to the enemies’ camp. They decided to step out on faith. They concluded that even walking into the enemies’ camp would be better than just sitting, because just sitting and doing nothing was certain death. So, the lepers got up and got moving. And when they started moving they discovered that GOD had not forgotten them and that just as HE promised in Psalm 23:5—GOD “prepared a table before [them] in the presence of [their] enemies.” GOD frightened the Syrian soldiers into thinking they were being pursued and caused the soldiers to just run and abandon everything --their food, their clothing and their wealth. The Syrian army just fled. So,when the Lepers walked into the Syrian camp, there was no one there---only evidence of the goodness of GOD. By deciding to move, the lepers discovered GOD’s blessing.
The Importance of Moving
There have been numerous studies documenting the relationship between physical exercise and health. These studies have examined the role of exercise in many groups: men and women, adults, older adults, children, teens, people with disabilities, women during pregnancy, and during the postpartum.
According to the US government’s Physical Activities Guidelines for all American, the major research findings are:
- Regular physical activity reduces the risk of many adverse health outcomes.
- Some physical activity is better than none.
- For most health outcomes, additional benefits occur as the amount of physical activity increases through higher intensity, greater frequency, and/or longer duration.
- Most health benefits occur with at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking. Additional benefits occur with more physical activity.
- Both aerobic (endurance) and muscle-strengthening (resistance) physical activity are beneficial.
- Health benefits occur for children and adolescents, young and middle-aged adults, older adults, and those in every racial and ethnic group studied.
- The health benefits of physical activity occur for people with disabilities.
- The benefits of physical activity far outweigh the possibility of adverse outcomes.
See, http://health.gov/paguidelines/guidelines.
Kinds of Physical Activity
There are a number of kinds of physical activity including: aerobic activity; muscle strengthening activity and bone strengthening activity.
Aerobic Activity – causes a person’s heart to beat faster than usual. It involves:
- Intensity – how hard a person works to do the activity (e.g. running or jogging instead of walking);
- Frequency- how often the person does the activity; and
- Duration- how long the person does the activity in any one session.
Muscle Strengthening Activity - causes the body’s muscles to work against an applied force or weight . This would include working out with weights, doing pushup or using the weight of the body to perform other exercises and working out with elastic bands. It involves:
1. Intensity- how much weight or force is used relative to how much a person can lift
2, Frequency- how often the person engages in strength training;and
3. Repetitions- how many times a person lifts a weight.
Bone Strengthening Activity – sometimes called weight-bearing activity puts a force on the bones that causes bone growth or strengthening. Sometimes the force is produced by impact on the ground. These activities would include jumping jacks, running, brisk walking and weight lifting activities. Bone Strengthening activities can also be aerobic and muscle strengthening.
Id. There is very strong scientific evidence that physical activity reduces the risk of pre-mature death.
Spiritual Health
Not moving can also affect our spiritual health. Like the four lepers, we have to remind ourselves that sitting around and doing nothing (whining, worrying, procrastinating, just feeling sorry for oneself, etc.) is not a solution. After we pray, we need to ask GOD what we should do and then do it. We need to exercise our faith and pray for more faith every day. Like bone strengthening, exercising faith strengthens and deepens faith. What we lack, we can ask GOD.
Sometimes we just need to take a leper’s leap of faith!
So, get moving!
Make this your “leap” year and BE BLESSED!
