Let's read together from the
Holy and Inspired Word of God. The reading is in 2 Kings chapter
6 and it is verse 8 through to 23, not 18 as on the sheets,
verse 8 through to 23. And so it is on the sheet, you
can follow it through if you have the hymn sheets. Then the king of Syria warred
against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In
such and such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God sent
unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such
a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of
Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him, and
warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice. Therefore the heart of the king
of Syria was so troubled for this thing. And he called his
servants and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of
us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said,
None, O LORD my O King, but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel,
telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy
bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where
he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying,
Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses
and chariots and a great host, and they came by night and compassed
the city about. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, an host compassed
the city both with horses and with chariots. And his servant
said unto him, Alas, master, how shall we do? And he answered,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man, And he saw, and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him,
Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people,
I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness
according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This
is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will
bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they
were come into 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 behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto
Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them, shall
I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not
smite them. Wouldst thou smite those whom
thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? Set bread and water before them,
that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he
prepared great provision for them. And when they had eaten
and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no
more into the land. of Israel, thus far the reading
of God's Holy Word. Now the word that I desire to
bring before you this morning is the last verse, particularly
these words, He prepared great provision for them. Now what we have read is the
literal history of Israel at this time when the king of Assyria
was warring with them. And yet these things, though
they are a historical record, They also have a gospel message. They're not just put in the Word
for the historical record. That which was written aforetime
is written for our learning. And of course, Israel is God's
ancient people, atypical people. But we have also Syria here as
well. They're an enemy of Israel. And
isn't that the case with every one of God's people at first? They begin as an enemy, and how
the Lord deals with them when they are enemies, and takes away
their enmity and hatred against Him, deals with them. And that's
what we see here and I want to bring out. But before we do,
just some other points that we may glean through this account. How evident it is that God knows
everything. He knew what was being planned. by Syria and was able to convey
that through his servant to Israel. But may we remember, the Lord
knows everything that we do. He knows everything that those
who may be our adversaries and are trouble to us, what they
are planning and what they are doing as well. Nothing is hid
from the Lord, and may that be a comfort and a help to us. You know, dear Peter, when the
Lord spoke to him after he was restored, Lovest thou me? And he resorted to this. He said,
Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. The second thing is the Lord's
care of his people. How the Lord showed to Elisha,
and then Elisha prayed that the young man's eyes be opened, the
protection that the Lord had round about his people. This
passage always brings to mind a visit I visited a dear widow
years ago over in Australia in her home, and it was in a very
bleak place, and not many houses around at all, And I said to
her, are you afraid of living on your own in this deserted
place, all on your own? She said, well, she said, I used
to be. But then the Lord showed me this
passage here, with the chariots of fire and horses round about
Elisha. And she realized, she said, I
realized the Lord was my protection. He was round about me. And that
helped her, enabled her to live on her own in that home as a
widow. And these passages have been
used, they are used, to show the Lord's care and the Lord's
keeping over His people. We cannot see with our literal
eyes, but the angel of the Lord campeth about them that fear
Him and delivereth them. The other thing to note is that
the young man Elisha's servant, though he was his servant and
close to him, he couldn't see this. He couldn't see it. Elisha
could see it. Now you dear friends in the home,
you might have, some of you are strong in faith, and you can
see and know the Lord's protection and the Lord's help. Another
one may not, be full of fears and not be able to see that. From this account may we remember
that this does happen. One of the Lord's people maybe
can see what another cannot see, and maybe be like Elisha. Lord, open the eyes of my fellow
traveller to eternity, my fellow pilgrim. They can't see what
I see. Don't despise them. Don't ridicule
them. Don't make out they're not one
of the Lord's dear people. Ask that they might see what
you see. And the Lord wonderfully opened
the eyes of Elijah's servant. We think also of maybe loved
ones, those that we pray for, we long for, that they might
see even the way of salvation and see the blessing of the Lord. Maybe pray that they might have
their eyes open. It is with the Lord very evident
in this account to be able to open eyes and to close eyes. And if the Lord shuts something
to us, we cannot see it. But when He opens it, then we
can see, and then we can see it clearly. You know, when my
dear mother died, when she first died, I could not see that she
was one of the Lords. And yet, I had seen, I had heard
many things that the Lord had done for her, but there was like
a veil over it. I couldn't see. I wanted her
to be saved so much that really I was wanting so clear But it
was clear, but I couldn't see, and the Lord was pleased to use
a sermon just afterwards to so open my eyes, and I've never
had a doubt ever since. It just put a different light
on everything that I'd seen, and I've never forgotten that
time. Maybe with some of you, all it needs is not something
new done, something different done, but the Lord to put a different
light on it, so you see and you hear in a different way than
what you've heard so far. With the word for the text here,
at the end of this, He prepared great provision for them, I want
to think of it in a gospel way. Who was it that He prepared great
provision for? It was the Enemy. But in what
position was their enemy? No longer was they in ascendancy. No longer were they fighting,
as it were. They were as captives. They were
brought under the power of Israel. They were brought depending upon
their mercy. And the king of Israel, Ahaziah,
he was asking, Can I slay them? Shall I slay them? And no, they
heard that and realized that if the tables were reversed,
there's no doubt they would have slain Israel. But here they were
at the mercy of Israel, and is not this what the Lord does with
His people who begin as enemies, at peace with hell, with God
at war, that is how they are first? Ye who sometime were alienated
by wicked works, hath he now reconciled? And he brings his
people down in Psalm 107. Again and again you read that
those that were rebellious, those that were rising up against the
Lord, they fell down. There was none to help. Then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out
of their distresses. And so when the Lord deals with
His people, He brings them to a place where they need mercy
and are shown mercy. And this is what we have here
in a literal sense, an enemy brought to be a captive. And
the Lord does bring His people, as it were, are captivated by
the gospel. They're captivated by Christ. They are brought to be with Him.
The children of Israel were, in one sense, captives in Egypt,
then they were brought out into the wilderness, they were His
people. And He chastened them, He corrected them, He taught
them, and they couldn't get out of it. The Apostle Paul saw that
he was, when the Lord was dealing with him, when he was an enemy,
he hated the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord, when He appeared
to him on that Damascus road, it wasn't to kill him like Ananias
and Sapphira were slain for their lies. But the Lord appeared for
him, brought him down, said, it is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. The Lord had already been giving
him pricks of conscience and dealing with him, and he couldn't
get out of that until the Lord showed him Himself and blessed
him, took away all his enmity, and brought him to be a preacher
of that very name that he hated. So those whom this provision,
this great provision was made, were once enemies, and they were
brought to be at the mercy of Israel, Israel's God, and then
they were given this great provision. And it's a beautiful picture
of the Gospel. It's a beautiful picture of God's
people, the counterwise blessing. We read in Romans, if thine enemy,
and it refers back to Proverbs, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. Overcome evil with good, not
rendering evil for evil. And the Gospel is just that.
He hath not dealt with us as our sins have deserved. No, all the Lord's people, they
say, like with the hymn writer, if my soul were sent to hell,
thy righteous law approves it well. We look for wrath, we look
for judgment, and the Lord gave us mercy. Why? Because Christ had endured that
punishment. We read in Psalm 80, Let thy
hand be upon the man at thy right hand, the Son of man, whom thou
madest strong for thyself. Our Lord spoke of the publican,
God be merciful to me a sinner. He went down to his house justified
rather than the other. The great provision of the Gospel,
really all the Old Testament Scriptures, the provision in
the Lord Jesus Christ, the provision in the Word of God, the great
provisions of grace, of mercy, of truth, that great provision
that God has given for the Church of God. Feed, feed my people. That's what the Lord said to
Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. May we know, may you know
this day and day by day the wonderful provision of the gospel. Feed
me with food convenient for me. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." It's
a blessed thing to have the crumbs from the Master's table, the
handfuls of purpose that were left for Ruth, another beautiful
example, another history in Israel, and yet beautiful gospel truths
and teaching come out through the Book of Ruth. And may this
then be our thought, our meditation today. There's a lot in this
chapter. You can have it for your meditation throughout this
day. And what was the effect of it
when they'd had this provision? Did they still take up arms?
Well, we still read there was still conflict between the two.
But we read in the text here, so the bands of Syria, those
attacking small bands, came no more into the land of Israel. And you know, I hope some of
you have proved, as I have, that the Lord's blessings have so
melted our hearts. We thought sometimes that what
we need is the hard rod and the Lord's severe punishments and
dealings in providence, and instead the Lord has come and so blessed
us and helped us, and He's so taken away all the enmity and
softened us at His goodness and mercy. That's what the Lord does,
and I believe some of you have known when He's broken your hard
hearts by His goodness, mercy, and His kindness towards you.