2 Kings 7:3-15

2 Kings 7:9 —

Then they said to one another, "We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent; if we wait until morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household."

Integrity is something we don’t see a lot of these days. We don’t always see people doing something because they know it’s “the right thing to do” especially if it will cost them something. We live in a generation that is all about instant gratification, one that loves to be puffed up. However, that’s not the way that God calls us to be. 

Take a look at the verse I attached, or if you are able to, look at the whole passage in reference at the top of the page. In this passage, we see 4 leper’s during a siege. Now a leper was a person who had a terrible and contagious disease and so they were always separated from the people and had to live in quarantine for the rest of their lives. At the time of this passage, the city that they lived by was under siege and so they were quickly running out of supplies. It was only a matter of time before they would all perish. So these four lepers decided to do the extreme and go to the camp of the people that were trying to defeat them because they figured they were going to die either way but at least they might die with full stomachs. When they got to the camp at sunset, there was no one there! Everyone had left! So they started taking everything, all the gold, all the food, and just enjoying everything there. It wasn’t until one of them spoke up that they remembered the rest of their people, they remembered all of their people that were starving and about to die. The weight of what they chose to do is magnified when you think about the fact that they were isolated from their people. They were written off as if they were dead the second they came down with their disease... and yet, they chose to have integrity, even greater than that, grace. In the world’s eyes, you would be justified, to an extent, if you chose to just let them be, if you chose to say, ”No, these people threw me out. They didn’t want me anymore.” 

In a beautiful act of grace and compassion, where they didn’t even know if when they came back that they would get anything in return and to our knowledge, they didn’t receive anything for doing what they did! But I guarantee that the Lord rewarded them in some way or another.

When it comes to being able to have integrity in hard circumstances, be encouraged by Galatians 6:9 which reads, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”