Well, this evening, I would encourage you to open up your Bibles and to turn, if you would, turn in your Bibles to 2 Kings as we continue on in God's Word in the book of 2 Kings. Tonight, we're going to be taking a look at chapter 6 and verses 8 through 23. And here, we're going to see a miraculous deliverance of the man of God. That is Elisha. and learn some things about our own way of seeing the world, especially in times of difficulty. But before we turn our attention to God's word and see what we can learn from it, let us go before the Lord who has given it to us and seek his face and his help. Sovereign God, I do pray now, Lord, that you would be with your people here assembled in this place. And Lord, those who may be watching online, I pray, Lord, that you would help us all to understand your word aright. I pray, Lord, that you would help me to divide it. I cannot divide this word without your help. I cannot reach ears. I mean, I can reach ears, but I cannot reach hearts. I can't do that changing work that needs to happen. And so I pray, Lord, that you would help me, help me to preach aright this evening. Let me say nothing that is not in keeping with your word. And may we all, Be amazed at the way that you have taken care of your people, your church in all the ages. And we pray this in Jesus' holy name. Amen. 2 Kings 6, and starting with verse 8. This is the word of the Lord. Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel, and he consulted with his servants, saying, My camp will be in such and such a place. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there. Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice. Therefore, the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. So he said, go and see where he is that I may send and get him. And it was told him, saying, surely he is in Dothan. Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, alas, my master, what shall we do? So he answered, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, strike this people, I pray, with blindness. And he struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha. Now Elisha said to them, this is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. But he led them to Samaria. So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and there they were inside Samaria. Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? But he answered, you shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master. Then he prepared a great feast for them. And after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of the Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Well, you will remember that prior to this, uh, this particular period, this particular prophet, Elisha, his forerunner, Elijah, had had a very different relationship with the king of Israel. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel hunted and hated the prophet Elijah and also the sons of the prophets. They were trying their very hardest to simply wipe them out. They had to run and hide. And Queen Jezebel was attempting, with some success, to switch the worship of the northern kingdom over from false worship of the true God to worshiping the false god Baal of the Sidonians. Jehoram, though King Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, had a much more moderate policy. He had restored the older civil religion of the false worship of God using the golden calves. And after Elisha had saved his army from Moab, the man of God, he had begun to listen to this man of God as a trusted advisor. Now, unfortunately, he did not trust Elisha enough to actually reform the false worship of Israel. He was not gonna go that far. Jehoram is clearly not regenerate. This is not a saved man. This is a man who respects Elisha, and respects the God of Israel, but he does not love the God of Israel enough to do what he had said and to return them to worshiping God the way that he had said that they should worship. For instance, allowing his people to go to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and to offer the sacrifices according to God's prescribed means. Instead, he continued on in this false religion. But he did trust Elisha enough to listen to his advice regarding what to do, for instance, in times of war. In that sense, Elisha had become something akin we might think of Joseph in the court of Pharaoh. He advised Pharaoh, he was second in the kingdom, and he did a very good job, but he was not able to persuade the Egyptians to leave off their worship of false gods. Or Daniel, for instance, first in the house of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and then later on serving Darius and Cyrus, the kings of Persia. Unfortunately, while Daniel did a wonderful job as a civil servant in all of those regimes, he did not manage to persuade those kings to leave off their false worship either. So the Persians remained false worshippers and the Babylonians remained false worshippers and so on, but they respected Daniel. And we see, for instance, that Nebuchadnezzar himself ended up believing in Daniel's God. So he did have an effect there. And that's about as much as any believer can hope for when he's serving an unregenerate civil magistrate. For respect, to be listened to, to have an influence, and perhaps to lead some to faith. We see, for instance, in the New Testament, Paul, as he is sent to Rome under guard to be tried there for stirring up dissent. He's accused, of course, of the same things that Jesus was accused of, treason. against the civil magistrate, but he is in Rome for long enough that he's able to gradually bring members of Caesar's household over to worshiping the Lord. He has influence on them that way. Sometimes we think that unless we can actually overturn the structure of government, unless we can change America's government, for instance, from its current rather pitiful state into a truly Christian nation in the way that we might hope for in the new heavens and the new earth. But if we can't do that, then no effect is possible. But I don't want you to think that. We see again and again in the Bible, we see believers having a great effect on pagans in places of power. This is one of those times. Now, in these verses, obviously, we see a number of miracles. There are actually four miracles. First, we have his God-given knowledge of the king of Syria's plans. We see him praying to open the eyes of his servant to see what really is the case, and that happens. And then we see the blinding of the Syrians, and then the restoration of their sight. So four separate miracles. Now, the king who's mentioned in verse 8, we are speculating, this is probably Ben-Hadad, who is referred to later on in the chapter, who was continuously waging war against Israel. He was territorially aggressive, we could put it that way. He wanted to expand his borders at the expense of Israel. And at this point, Syria's king is making war against Israel. In particular, he sends large bands of raiders over the border in an attempt to ambush Jehoram and his military forces. In some ways, we can think of this as the way that North Vietnam, for many years, waged war against South Vietnam, sending large bands of of soldiers into the South. They did not until, well, until Tet and then the major offensives in 73 and 75, they did not employ their entire army sending, for instance, armored forces or anything like that. But they sent large military units into the South. hoping to win victories by ambush and surprise. And occasionally they did. And that's what the Syrian king is hoping for. He's hoping to gradually whittle down or perhaps even in one of these, you know, kill important commanders, perhaps even the king of Israel himself by ambush and surprise. But unfortunately for him, his plans are continuously being thwarted. He'd set a trap. You know, he'd find the perfect canyon. He knows that the forces of Israel are going to pass through this particular valley and he would set up his ambush and then suddenly at the last moment, a messenger would come running to the unit and they would turn aside and not enter into the valley. And this keeps happening. And he rightly concludes that someone is giving Jehoram his plans. But he assumes it's a traitor. So, you know, he essentially screams at his men, will not one of you tell me who is for the king of Israel? Who is this who is betraying us constantly? Who is it who's telling him his plans? And one of his men says, it's not that, my king. It's not one of your generals who's telling him. Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, he tells him what you say to your concubines in the bedroom. He tells them all of your plans. There's nothing that you can withhold, O King. He's got you absolutely bugged, okay? It's like he's got a cell phone in his pocket. But the Lord is obviously, the Lord knows these things. And he's making them known to his servant, and then his servant, Elisha, is making them known to the king. So he determines what he has to do is to cut off Jehoram's intelligence network to seize Elisha. So he sends this large mobile force of horsemen and chariots to quickly capture the prophet in Dothan, the village that he is currently residing in, 11 miles north of Samaria. What I think you also need to see is the way that the prophet Elisha was constantly moving about, constantly doing the work of the Lord. One moment he's in Gilgal, the next moment he's in Dothan, staying there. A lot of it, of course, would have had to do with his training of the sons of the prophets, but in a very real sense, the prophet here is an itinerating prophet. He's not staying put. And this is a reflection later of Christ's later ministry, isn't it? Christ did not stay in one place. Although Capernaum becomes the center of his ministry in Galilee, he doesn't stay put in Capernaum. He's constantly moving around from village to village. He had no place to lay his head because the importance was that the word would go forth. And that is exactly what is on Elisha's mind as well. While he gives information to the king of Israel, don't go here, don't go there, probably sending his servants to run these messages to the king. At the same time, he is remembering to put first things first and preaching the word of God, teaching the teachers who would come up after him. That should be something that is of great importance to us, making sure that our first priority is seeing the kingdom of God advance however we can. So here is Elisha staying in Dothan, a village about 11 miles north of Samaria. And Gehazi, we remember, has already been dismissed in disgrace. He had been given the leprosy of Naaman after he had gone and he had tried by deceit to grab some of Naaman's wealth. The prophet has a new helper. He's probably also one of the sons of the prophet, so we can think of him as a young seminary student. And the young man wakes up one morning, probably gets up as they do in the morning to go out and get the water for the day. And he sees that this village is entirely surrounded by horses and chariots. This is something that you might be able to hide at night, but not in the daylight. And I'm sure he turned pale as a sheet and ran back inside. And he says, the entire village is surrounded by Syrian cavalry. What are we going to do? What are we going to do? And, you know, Elisha says to him, in essence, don't worry. Fear not. This is one of the things that I hope you notice as you read through the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. Again and again and again, we are instructed. When Christ appears, for instance, after his resurrection to his disciples, he says again and again, fear not. When they're in the boat, in the midst of the storm, on the Sea of Galilee, the words are, fear not. Fear not. Don't be afraid of what your eyes say is the situation. Have faith. Elisha sees the whole situation with very different eyes. His eyes have been opened by God, and he perceives the host of angels that are protecting him. Now we might be surprised if we knew how God's heavenly hosts encamp around us and protect us. He sees that the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire. Now at this point, after attempting to calm his young helper, he doesn't say, trust me, just trust me, God's with us, to the young man. He prays that the Lord would open his eyes. One of the commentators on this particular section rightly says this, he says, good men desire not only to be easy themselves but to have those about them easy. His master was therefore desirous to give him other convincing evidence of that omnipotence which employed him and was therefore employed for him. Note, those whose faith is strong ought tenderly to consider and compassionate those who are weak and of a timorous spirit and to do what they can to strengthen their hands. That's Matthew Henry. In other words, those of you who are further along in the faith, when there are those who are full of anxiety, who are afraid of everything, whether it's in their life or in the world around them, you need to be somebody who comforts them, who comes along, in that old sense, not merely saying, they're there, you know, and offering no real strength to them, but to come alongside them and strengthen them, that's what comfort means. To strengthen them with the knowledge that you have of the Bible and your trust in God and your faith, to convey to them that all is not lost, that the God of heaven has not left his throne, I've used this example before. At this point, I've used every example before. I am so sorry. But I am always struck by the lesson that Katie Von Bora, the wife of Martin Luther, taught him at one point. Martin was deeply depressed. The Reformation did not appear to be going well. All was lost and he was moping a lot. So one day he came home and he saw Katie dressed all in black with a veil over her face sitting in the corner. And he said to her, why, Katie, who has died? And she said, in essence, well, to judge by you, God, apparently. The idea being, where is your trust in the Lord? You were the one who went forward. You stood in the middle of the Diet of Worms, surrounded by all of the princes. You had the Holy Roman Emperor before you. And yet you said, here I stand, I can do no other. You answered with the word of God. You still serve the same God. You need to have the same faith. So he prays that the eyes of this young man would be opened and they are opened and he sees for the first time how the angels encamp about his servants and protect them. And then he prays that the eyes of the Syrians would be blinded. Now, commentators go back and forth on this one. The word that's used, and I'm terrible at Hebrew pronunciation, for blind here is Sanwe Reem, which occurs only here and then earlier in Genesis 1911. That's where the angels blinded the men of Sodom who were searching for the entrance to Lot's house. And the question that they ask is, was this blindness Or was this a confusion of sight? For instance, we see that kind of thing happening when we have the two disciples who are on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus appears to them, and they don't recognize him. And it seems more likely that it was a confusion of sight. It would have been very difficult for this army unit to be able to move the 11 miles from Dothan to Samaria if they were all stone blind, if they couldn't see anything. But if their eyesight was confused, they did not recognize the prophet, They did not recognize the geography, and so on. So it seems more likely that it was a miracle of confused sight, a supernatural impediment deceiving them, and so on. So after this affliction has fallen upon them, he says, you're not in the right place. This isn't the right city. I'll take you to the men that you're seeking. And of course, he leads them all the way to the capital, to Samaria. And you can imagine the surprise of the watchman on the wall of Samaria as they see Elisha leading this Syrian army unit through the gates and into the courtyard. No doubt the king hastily assembled the armed forces expecting some kind of battle. And then he prays that their eyes would be opened. And you can just imagine the terror of the Syrians when they look and they see the hosts of Israel surrounding them. They are inside the city. There is no hope for them. They are all doomed. They're all dead. They're hopelessly surrounded. And, of course, the king answers. You know, you can imagine he's excited. He's waving his arms as one commentator. Do I kill him? Do I kill him? Is that what I'm supposed to do? But of course, at this point in time, he says no. And he's got a good reason for doing so. If they had been killed, or if they had been made into slaves, which was one of the other procedures of war, the effect of the miracle would have been lost. And it would have been, oh, well, I just lost another unit. It seems like, you know, Israel's won another one. With their release, as they went back to the king of Syria and said what had happened to them, the glory was given to God. And they knew there's a God who is protecting Israel, which leads, as we read here, to a time of peace. Unfortunately, unregenerate men don't tend to remember lessons learned the hard way for very long, and of course, the war is going to start again. But for a time, the king obviously is impressed that this god protects his people. Now, what's the great application of this? I'm only going to make one large application, and it's rather obvious. You've probably already made it yourself. We have here emphasized for us the importance of seeing things from God's point of view with spiritual insight, to see things with the eyes of faith and not merely with the physical eyes we have because we live in a time when we too appear to be surrounded by the enemies of the people of God. We seem to be hedged in on every side. Woe is us. What are we going to do? One commentator by the name of Dilde made this comment. He says, a far worse army surrounds us in these days of spiritual warfare. We face demonic foes incomparably more evil than the human soldiers whose armor glittered in the morning sunshine around Dothan. As Paul said, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's Ephesians 6.12 incidentally. Realizing the enormity of Satan's host, we wonder with the apostle, who is sufficient for these things? 2 Corinthians 2.16. In spiritual warfare, it is not sufficient to whistle in the dark and try to lift discouraged hearts with a cheery fear not. Human words of encouragement are not sufficient. We must have eyes of faith to see the evidence of God's powerful presence. And God is just as present in the world as he was in those times. and he protects his people. I hope you recognize that. The only reason the church continues, the church is tormented, is persecuted, is put to death in two-thirds of the world's nations, and yet we endure. Why? Because we have a merciful, loving God who protects his people. The world, the flesh, and the devil hate God and his people and do all that they can to destroy them. And yet the Lord protects, he preserves, he uplifts. And not only that, he expands the kingdom. That's the amazing thing. We're not, you know, this discouraged band hiding behind the walls. We go forth in the name of the Lord and we bring the gospel message. Even in places where there's an overwhelmingly negative view of the gospel, it is yet advancing. The gospel is advancing, for instance, in places where, literally, there are jihadis seeking to kill every Christian, every evangelist. The gospel continues to go forth in places where the government persecutes it mercilessly, ruthlessly, places like China. In North Korea, the number one persecutor on the face of the planet, a place where you can literally be shot dead on the spot for having a Bible in your possession, or a portion of a Bible in your possession, yet there are Christians who are spreading the faith. There are people in China who actually train North Koreans to go back and continue to preach the gospel, the only message of hope in that very, very dark, blighted country. And so we look around us, and it may seem hopeless. It may seem like we are outnumbered. But we need not fear what flesh can do to us, brothers and sisters. The God who protected Elisha is the same God who is watching over us, who is watching over you if you are one of his people. You may not be able to see those innumerable host of angels who watch over you, but they are there. There are so many times in my life when, as an unbeliever, things miraculously happen to preserve my life or keep me out of very, very significant trouble. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but the God who was preparing me for better things was watching over me. And so he did not allow me to destroy myself in those moments. There have been times since when I have seen the hand of the Lord protecting, preserving, and keeping me. I have to tell you that if it weren't for his encouragement, for his sending the right person at the right time, for simply giving me strength in my moments of weakness, I would have failed in the ministry a long, long, long time ago. I am not sufficient for such things, but God is. The God who animates us, the God who indwells us, the God who calls us, the God who cheers us, who strengthens us, who carries us occasionally. The God who is always strong when we are weak. the God who is there and who speaks to us in his word, who comforts us when we are full of despair, and who tells us, fear not, and not glibly, as in, oh, don't worry, it could be worse. No, he is the one who says, to use the simple parlance, don't worry, I've got this. I have it all. Every moment of your life was mapped out long before. I am not going to let one hair fall from your head without my say-so. And so, the world may persecute us, but we need not fear them. The world constantly, incidentally, gets the math wrong. Apparently, more than once, when he was asked to consider the church in diplomatic negotiations, Stalin thought he was very clever when he answered, oh, the Pope, how many divisions has he got? Knowing, of course, that the Pope didn't have the kind of standing army that the Soviet leader could call upon. But, of course, the church, well, the church is far larger than the papacy. The church is a dynamic force protected by legions of angels. And Satan, as Martin Matthew Henry puts it, the God of this world blinds men's eyes and so deludes them into their own ruin. But when God enlightens their eyes, they then see themselves in the midst of their enemies, captives to Satan and in danger of hell, though before they thought their condition good. That was the way I thought about it. I thought of the church as small, pathetic, dwindling, powerless, and so on when I was a pagan. But the Lord opened my eyes, not only to see myself, but to see the truth in mathematics. to see that there were more who were against me when I was a pagan than with me, and that I was utterly powerless. We are utterly powerless against God. We may shake our fist at him. We may think that we are some great power in the world like Stalin did, but in the end, we end up just as dust. And brothers and sisters, I hope it's the case that you've already come to the conclusion that you want to be on the winning side. You want to stand with that great mighty army. There's a day coming. when Jesus will return. You remember when the Lord took his disciples out onto that mountain, and as he was ascending up into heaven, they stood looking into the skies, wondering, what's gonna happen to us? We're a band of, you know, a few pilgrims left. Most of the people who had followed Christ had already disappeared. So you had essentially the core nucleus of the army of the apostles forming the remaining army of the Lord on earth, if I can put it that way. Not very many men. And yet the Lord would not leave them, and he would grow them exponentially. And the angels therefore said to them, they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. He is returning. Do not worry. Do not be afraid. Follow his plans. Follow his instruction. Starting in Jerusalem, then to Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. Now, somebody looking at that situation with the eyes of sight, the physical eyes, would have said, this is a ridiculous computation. You've got a few fishermen who are so scared, they lock themselves in upper rooms. What are they going to do against the mighty Roman Empire? They're going to spread this faith to the ends of the earth. But with God, all things are possible, and they did. They took the faith literally to every continent. There are so few unrich peoples who have never heard the gospel at this point in time. It's literally gone to the ends of the earth. And what remains? Well, all that really remains, brothers and sisters, is the return of Jesus Christ, just as he said, and what a day that'll be. We read about it in Revelation 19. I want you to turn there with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Revelation 19. I'll close on this particular section of Scripture. There we read, starting with verse 17, after we see the image of Christ, the mighty warrior as he returns, King of kings and Lord of lords. And then we hear this in verse 17. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses, and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beasts, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. And that's Jesus and the redeemed who follow him. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image. Those two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword, which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh." The final battle isn't even a battle. Jesus speaks and it's over. Brothers and sisters, that's what's to come. And the only question is, what side do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the side of the bird food? Or would you rather stand with the mighty King, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the last day? I pray that your decision is that you want to be with Christ, that you'll stand with the ones who are spat upon, who are persecuted, who are crushed, who are considered the off-scourings of the world, who are mocked and vilified, who are so hated by the political forces in this world. and yet who are beloved of God, who are protected by him, and who will be vindicated. You will be vindicated at the last day. Know that. Know that the one who won the victory over Satan on the cross will not forget you. He will not leave you. He will not forsake you. He will always be with you. His angels surround you and the church to protect them. And oh, that day that'll be so terrifying to those who stand against God when their eyes are open like the army of Syria in the midst of Samaria, when their eyes are finally open to see the truth. What a terrifying day that will be. But for you, it'll be a day of glory when you see the Lamb descending with a shout and all those who have gone before Him, what a day of glory that'll be. I long for that day more and more every single day that I live here on Earth for the return of the Lord. I am enabled to continue to hold until relieved, as the saying goes, because I know Christ is coming back. He who has won the victory will seal it when he returns. Let's go before him now. God, our gracious Father, we do thank you so much for your word, for the assurance that it gives us. We thank you, oh Lord, for the miracles that you did to show that what your prophets, your apostles said was true. I hope, Lord, that you will help your people to walk by faith and not by sight. I pray that you would be with them throughout their lives. And I pray, oh Lord, that we would all pray for that day of final deliverance, for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the meantime, we pray that you would watch over those who suffer for the faith. This day, oh Lord, we are particularly praying for the people of Nicaragua. They have a government that feels that they have the upper hand that persecutes them mercilessly, Lord, because they love you. But we know, Lord, that there are more with them than there are with the government. And we pray, O Lord, that you would help them to stand fast. We pray all of these things in Jesus' holy name.