Situation? Desperate. Degree of hope? Near zero. Cynicism? Running high. Solution? Windows in heaven.

Hovering over a phrase in 2 Kings 7 this morning which I’m taking out of context yet is providing a flood of comfort and confidence.

Ben-hadad king of Syria has laid siege to Samaria. So severe is the famine that “a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver” (6:25). Don’t know exactly what that means, but Peterson helps in The Message, “food prices soared astronomically.” So bad was the famine that moms were divvying up their children for food (6:26-29). Situation? Desperate. Degree of hope? Near zero.

Enter the man of God, Elisha. Enter God through the man, the LORD of heaven and earth.

But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD: thus says the LORD, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.”

(2Kings 7:1 ESV)

Peterson again cuts to the chase: “This time tomorrow food will be plentiful.”

But understandably, cynicism runs high.

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the LORD Himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?”

(2Kings 7:2a ESV)

Might as well let Peterson comment on this as well: “You expect us to believe that? Trapdoors opening in the sky and food tumbling out?”

Windows in heaven opened upon earth. Floodgates of living water gushing out on a dry, sparse, and desert land. An existence all but atrophied infused with abundance from above. Really? You expect us to believe that?

Yeah, really!

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

(Matthew 3:16-17 ESV)

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

(Romans 8:31b-32 ESV)

The windows of heaven have been opened. The sluice thrown wide. Heaven’s best sent to redeem earth’s worst. The Son of God, anointed with the Spirit of God, to deliver the life-giving abundance of God to dying souls in a dry and barren land. Could this thing be? Yes sir! Yes ma’am! Because there ARE windows in heaven.

We have known the feast given in famine since that day we first believed. Hope for the hopeless. Life worth the living. Every bone-dry season of famine since then serving as an opportunity to know afresh that there are windows in heaven. The ultimate prize, the Son Himself. The ultimate thirst-quenching, soul-filling sustenance delivered by the Spirit in us as He comes afresh upon us.

Windows in heaven? Really? Yeah, really. That’s the solution. That’s the Savior.

By His grace. For His glory.