2 Kings 7:1-2 KJV — Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.
Via ChatGPT:
Imagine a Substack blogger who has been toiling away for months, maybe even years. This blogger has only 10 subscribers, most of whom are friends or family, and they have made no money from their writing. Despite pouring their heart and soul into every post, the blogger is stuck—unseen, unread, and completely discouraged. Their Substack is barely known, with no real prospects of growth. They’re considering quitting because it feels like their efforts will never pay off.
Now, picture someone like Elisha coming to this blogger and saying:
“By this time tomorrow, you will have 100,000 subscribers, and your newsletter will be generating $50,000 in monthly revenue.”
For a blogger who has struggled to get even 10 subscribers, this prophecy sounds absurd, even laughable. How could such explosive growth happen overnight? There’s no marketing budget, no viral content, no celebrity endorsements—nothing that would realistically explain such a meteoric rise. The blogger might react with skepticism, thinking, “Even if I somehow went viral, there’s no way I could gain that many followers or make that kind of money so quickly!”
Specific Nature and Rate of Change:
To translate this into precise terms:
- Subscribers: The blogger currently has only 10 subscribers. Elisha’s prophecy implies they would gain 99,990 new subscribers in a single day. That’s an increase of 999,900%—an astronomical rate of growth that would be unimaginable for almost any content creator.
- Income: With zero income currently, the prophecy suggests a sudden jump to $50,000 in monthly revenue. This means going from $0 to $50,000 overnight—a rate of change that defies all conventional understanding of how online monetization works.
For a Substack blogger, this kind of growth would typically take years of consistent effort, a lucky break, or a combination of both. To go from 10 followers and no income to 100,000 followers and a high five-figure monthly income in 24 hours would seem impossible by any normal metric. The prophecy, therefore, challenges the very assumptions that the blogger (and anyone else familiar with the industry) would have about what is possible.
Improbability in Contemporary Terms:
Such a scenario might be as improbable as a blogger with a tiny audience suddenly having their work featured by a major news outlet, shared by a celebrity with millions of followers, or even picked up by a platform like Substack as a “recommended read,” causing a massive spike in both readership and revenue. But even then, the level of growth predicted would be hard to believe.
This modern-day translation captures the emotional impact of Elisha’s prophecy: the promise of an impossible, overnight transformation that flies in the face of all expectations. It highlights the disbelief that would naturally follow such a bold prediction and sets the stage for the miraculous fulfillment that, according to the biblical narrative, only divine intervention could accomplish.