A Raw Deal

Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” 2 Kings 6:28-29

Sons didn't go very far between two hungry women back in those days. Forgive me; it is a weak attempt to deflect with humor that chilling sentence in the holy scriptures: "So we boiled my son, and ate him." This is not that ancient equivalent of the modern cannibal horror movie, and the chill in the heart tells it. An Israelite writing ancestor of Stephen King didn't come up with this line, it was spoken by a desperate woman to a different sort of king.

It is interesting to see the king in his ignorance asking, "What is troubling you?" But, it was the injustice of her neighbor that seemed to bother the woman more. It wasn't, "Sire, we had to boil my son and eat him; when are you going to get rid of those armies besieging the city?" She was upset that her neighbor had reneged on the deal and she felt the raw end of a bad bargain in her hands. At least there was the desperation of extreme hunger in that time. These days mere convenience is enough to end the life of children.

So, is a raw deal troubling you today? I know, we can scarcely admit any raw deals on our part in light of such suffering in the scriptures. We have it easy in this age having never suffered a siege in this land in our lifetime. God has been good and gracious to us, and we have food to eat with many other comforts. Better than that is the deal we got on the price of our sin: God's Son paid it all!

Let us rejoice in gratitude to our Lord today,
Bucky