God revealed things to Elisha, and this included the troop movements of the king of Aram. Obviously, this gave the Israelites a great advantage. The king of Aram realised that something was going on and initially thought there must be a spy or traitor in the camp. However, his officers had obviously heard of Elisha and knew that he was the source of the inside information.
The king decided to send troops to capture Elisha. One might have thought that he would have had an inkling that trying to capture a clearly effective man of God by natural means was unlikely to work, but people do not always think logically.
The troops came and Elisha's servant was greatly concerned. Elisha, however, was perfectly calm and uttered the famous word "those who are with us are more than those who are against us". There is an echo of this in 1 John 4:4, "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world". We need to realise who is on our side! Elisha then prayed for God to open his servant's eyes to see the true situation. We need to look at things with the eyes of faith. Notice in the opening chapters of Ephesians and Colossians the things that Paul prays for. He prays for our eyes to be opened to the fullness of what God has done for us.
Elisha's servant saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire. Remember that Elijah was taken away in a chariot of fire.
Elisha then prayed for God to strike the enemy with blindness. Then he led them into a trap. The king of Israel wanted to know if he should seize the opportunity and kill them. Elisha advised against it, citing the equivalent of our "Geneva convention". The king then threw a feast for the captives and then sent them away. As a result the raids stopped. If the king had killed them it is likely that there would have been more intense raids. So we see a mixture of the supernatural, righteousness and wisdom at work here.
No comments:
Post a Comment