as i mentioned early the, the city of sermaria it was under siege and the army of seria was encamped all around it, ben hadad was a great warrior, he would of been the, the alexander or the napoleon of his day and he had set up this  encampment around the city of sermaria, nobody could get in, nobody could get out and very quickly the stocks of food and water er were used up, rationing would of been introduced but it only lasted for a certain period, they'd got to the stage it tells us in the previous chapter that er, that a donkeys head was sold for eighty shekel's of silver  and some folk had even got to the, had sunk to the level of cannibalism, of eating their own children  and the city was, when they heard about this they were in an uproar and they started blaming god  and in between the city of sermaria of all its suffering and hopelessness and helplessness and the army encamped about with all of their supplies, there was this area of no mans land in which they were caught up four men who were leapers and they were trapped there, they didn't want to go over to the serians because they'd be killed, they didn't want to go back into the city because they weren't allowed there and any way what was the point, they'd only die of starvation in there  and so these four men are caught up in no man's land and yet their no better off than people in the city, now god had promised deliverance, through his serve and eliger he had promised deliverance, eliger said tomorrow about this time a measure of fine flour shall be sold for a se shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of semaria, he said the gates are gonna be open, there's gonna be food and its gonna be a reasonable price  and it says the royal officer who's hand the king was leaning on said the man of god said behold, if the lord shall make windows in heaven could such a thing be, he said don't talk stupid man, how can such a thing happen for us?, he didn't believe what god servant said and eliger brings out to him a terrible judgment, he says because of your unbelief you will see it, but your not participate in it  but lets look at these four men for a moment, cos that's where our real interest lies this morning, i just wanted to say three things in their experience, the first things is that they were amazed that, at what they found, because after they come together and they talk about it and they said well what shall we do  and they weighed the pro's and the cons and semaria doesn't look very attractive with its cannibalism, they said well the least  if we stay here were gonna die, if we go into semaria we'll die, lets go down to the serein camp, the worse they can do to us is put us to death and were dying men any way, but they may just take pity on us, we maybe allowed to grope around in their dustbins and get some scraps of food, they may at least allow us that, and so they make their way down just as evening is falling, they make their way down to the serein lines and when they get there, they are amazed at what they find, you see their condition was helpless and hopeless, they were dying men any way, they were lepers, but they were dying of starvation, that was far more imminent than their leprosy, their problems and their needs were greater than themselves, they could not meet their own needs, their problems and their needs were greater than their government, the king in semaria and all of his court could not meet the needs of his people  and then in verse five, we read something there, they arose at twilight to go to the camp of aramians or the serein's and when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the serein's behold there was no one there, they expected to at least meet a guard, there would surely be somebody on sentry duty even if the rest of the soldiers had gone in to their tents and were perhaps getting ready for their, for the evening, going to bed or whatever they were gonna be doing, having their evening meal, there would at least be somebody on guard duty, but when they got there, there was no one there, god had stepped in, god had intervened and the good news of the christian gospel is that god has intervened in our, in the midst of our helplessness, in the midst of our hopelessness, god has intervened, he had stepped in to history, so often you'll hear folks say, well why doesn't god do something, why does god allow this to happen, why does god allow that one, why doesn't he do something  all they really show by that comment is their own ignorance, because god has done something, god has intervened, listen to what it says in john three sixteen, for god so loved the world that he gave, he's only son and the er, the er apostle paul and he's writing to the gallations, in chapter four and in verses four and five hear what he says there,but when the time had fully come god sent his son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of son, er of sons , god has done something, he's sent his son jesus christ into this world in fact his done the greatest thing he could do, he has done the very ultimate thing, he has sent his son into the world  that's the greatest intervention god could ever have made, it was far greater than, than just intervening in sm , in some small local event, were you see some catastrophe happening and you say well why doesn't god do something there, or there's a war situation going on in some other part of the world, well why doesn't god step in and stop it, god has stepped in, not in a local situation, not in some er passing problem or need but he's stepped into the greatest way possible by sending his son jesus christ into the world to dye for men and woman, to take away sin, to pay the price that god's righteousness demands for sin  so god has intervened and his intervention has changed the whole situation, its brought a whole new complexion on things, its changed the colour completely, no longer is the world now under darkness and in, and in pending judgment in doom, because jesus christ came and he took that judgment and that, that condemnation upon himself, he said i've not come to condemn the world  he said its already condemned, its already under judgement, the sword of damocles is already hanging over the world  and jesus christ came in and to take that judgment and that condemnation on himself and when he died there on the cross and rose again, there came that burst of light in a world that had been shrouded in blackness and darkness, a world that had been shrouded in sin suddenly for the first time sees the light, god has paid for himself the price of sin, god has intervened and changed the whole situation and the message of the gospel is that if you and i allow that intervention to effect us personally, then like those four men surely we too are amazed at what we've found.