Let us turn to God's word and
we turn to the portion of scripture that we read in the second book
of Kings chapter 6 and verses 16 and 17 second Kings chapter
6 verses 16 and 17 and he that is Elisha 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. The ministry of this man, Elisha,
was a most remarkable ministry as we have it recorded here in
Holy Scripture. It was a ministry, of course,
it was full of very striking miracles. He had asked that he
might receive a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. Remember, earlier in the chapter
in the book in the second chapter and there in verses 9 and 10
as Elijah having fulfilled his ministry is about to be translated
into heaven we read these words and he came to pass When they
were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall
do for thee before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said,
I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked
a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me
when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if
not, it shall not be so. And subsequently we see that
it was so. Verse 12, Elisha saw it. And he cried, My father, my father,
the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And he saw
him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes
and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank
of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten
the waters, they departed hither and thither, and Elisha went
over. How he obtained that that he
desired that that he asked for It was granted even that double
portion of the Spirit of Elijah. And now, in the verses that we've
just read for our text, in the 6th chapter, verses 16 and 17,
we see how he asks for the gift of sight, not for himself, but
for his servant. In verse 17, 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. Well I want us as we come to
consider the text tonight particularly these two verses 16 and 17 to
divide what I say into these two parts first of all to observe
that what we have here is the work of God, the work of God
in answer to the prayer of Elisha, and then secondly, to also consider
that we have here the words of God, the work of God and the
words of God. Now, clearly, in the beginning
of this 17th verse we see how in his prayer Elijah the Prophet
is acknowledging that the work is God's. He prays in such a
fashion because he knows that only God can do it. And what is it that he is asking? He is asking that a man's eyes
might be opened. Now there is a relationship between
physical blindness and spiritual blindness. And so also a relationship
between physical sight and spiritual sight. And it's interesting what
we see in the context because subsequently we see how he asks
that the armies of the Syrians might be blinded. And then subsequently,
He asked that they might again receive their sights. Look at
what we read there in verse 18, following. When they came down
to Him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord and said, Smite these people,
that is the armies of the Syrians that were round about the city
of Dothan, smite these people I prayed He with blindness and
He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
And then Elisha leads them to the city of Samaria as blind
men. At verse 20, 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. They had come out as they were
wont against the Israelites, and that northern kingdom, of
course, has its capital at Samaria. And here now they are taken as
blind men right into the midst of that capital city of the Israelites. taken as blind men only to have
their eyes opened by the Lord and to see that they are surrounded
on every hand now in Samaria by their enemies. What is he
asking in these verses? He's asking God first of all
to take away their sight, their physical sight, and then to restore
that sight. Now I said that there is a relationship
between physical sight and spiritual sight. And we see that again
in the experience of Saul of Tarsus. Remember, when called,
when he experienced that efficacious grace of God, as we have it recorded
in Acts chapter 9, he was blinded when the Lord Jesus Christ meets
him there at the very gate of Damascus. We're told in verse
8 how Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened
he saw no man. But they led him by the hand
and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without
sight, neither did eat nor drink. And then subsequently the Lord
speaks to this disciple Ananias and sends him to restore sight
to this blind man who was a persecutor of the church and he was obedient,
he was obedient to the command of Christ, was Ananias and why
does he go to Saul that he might give him his sight back? His
sight had been taken, he'd been blinded Verse 17, And Ananias
went his way, and entered into the house, putting his hands
on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared
unto thee in the way, as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou
mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales,
and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. Now clearly in the case of that
man, Saul of Tarsus, there's a connection between his physical
blindness and the way in which subsequently his sight is restored. A connection between that and
what had been accomplished in his soul. He had received spiritual
eyes. There is a connection when we
come to consider the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Do we not see how He is One who performs many miracles? And amongst
those miracles He gives sight to men who are blind. We can
think of blind Bartimaeus there at Jericho, sitting by the wayside,
begging. And as the Lord passes that way,
He cries out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on them. And what does he desire of Christ
that he might receive his sight. And then the very striking example
that is contained in the ninth chapter of John's gospel concerning
a man who was actually born blind. A man who had never in his life
seen a thing. As Jesus passed by he saw a man
which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind? How they equate the affliction
that this man is suffering with some sin that his parents or
he himself must have been guilty of? Jesus answered, Neither hath
this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be made manifest in him. And what does Christ do? The
first thing he does is to perform a miracle. He gives the man sight. Verse 7, He said unto him, Go
wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He
went his way therefore and washed and came seeing. And then subsequently we see
something of Christ's gracious ministry to that man. Because
the miracles are signs, as we know. As we've said before, that
is the word that is used repeatedly in John's Gospel. Translated
as miracle in our authorised version, but more literally it
is the word sign. This beginning of signs did Jesus
in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory. Oh, they are
a sign in which they are pointing to Him as that One who is the
promised Messiah. They point to something of the
glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the miracles were signs
then. And what do they direct us to? They direct us to Christ, and
they lead us to that principal aspect of the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why did He come? He came to save
sinners, to save from bondage, to save from all the blindness
of sin. We have those words in the 42nd
chapter of Isaiah concerning the Lord's servant and his ministry
to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoner from the prison
and then the sitting darkness out of the prison house. There
is his ministry. Why does he come? To open blind
eyes and to bring the prisoners who are sitting in darkness out
of the prison house. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
commences his ministry as we have it there in the fourth chapter
of Luke's Gospel after he's submitted to John's baptism and the Spirit
of God has descended upon him and he's led of the Spirit into
the wilderness and he's tempted 40 days and 40 nights and he
returns from the wilderness in all the fullness of the Spirit
and he goes to Nazareth where he was brought up and he goes
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as was his wont and the minister
passes to him that book of the prophet and he turns to those
very words there in Isaiah chapter 42 and he reads he reads the
words of the prophet there in Luke chapter 4 at verse 16 following
and what does he say having read that passage concerning the opening
of blind eyes this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
Oh, the Lord Jesus, you see, His ministry is not just to grant
the miracle of physical sight to a man who was born blind,
but Christ came to give to that man spiritual sight. to give
to that man something of the sight of faith. It is a remarkable
chapter that we have there in John chapter 9 and when we come
to the end of that chapter remember how the man was excommunicated
by the Jews, they put him out of the synagogue they cut him
off from Israel as it were And we're told that verse 35, Jesus
heard that they had cast him out. And when he had found him,
he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus
said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh
with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.
and he worshipped him. Or when he sees the Lord Jesus
with those spiritual eyes, thou hast both seen him, said Christ,
and it is he that talketh with thee. And the man said, Lord,
I believe. And he worshipped him. He was
granted then that spiritual sight by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
is the work of God to give sight to those who are blind. That
was the reason for Christ coming into the world, was he not? At
the beginning of that ninth chapter he tells us, I must work the
works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when
no man can work. And so we see quite clearly that
it is God's prerogative to give sight to blind eyes. And isn't this what we have here
in the case of the servants of Elisha? Those opening words of
verse 17 are so striking. Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray Thee open his eyes that he may see. Only God can do that. Only God can open the spiritual
eye that a man may truly see spiritual things. That's what
the Lord Jesus is doing with that man born blind at the end
of that ninth chapter. When the man worships Christ,
because his eyes are open to the truth of who this Jesus of
Nazareth really is. It is God who gives spiritual
sight. It is God who gives saving faith,
is it not? The sight of faith. We often
use that expression, the sight of faith, to say with the spiritual
eye. This is the work of God. says
Christ, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. It must be
that faith of the operation of God. And though the prophet is
recognizing that, here is God's work to grant sight to this young
man that he might see with spiritual eyes. And we see it so often
in the Scriptures, do we not? It is God who has to open eyes
to see spiritual truths. We can come, of course, and with
our natural eye we can read the page of Holy Scripture. But if
the Word of God is going to do us any good, we need that sight
of faith. to behold those wondrous things
that are set before us here in the Word of God. It was ever
so, was it not? Think of the prayer of Moses
back in Exodus chapter 33 after all that he had experienced. He had been raised up to be the
deliverer of the children of Israel He had to stand before
the King of Egypt, confronting the Pharaoh. He performed those
great miracles, those wonders, those terrible judgments that
fell upon the Egyptians before God was pleased to bring the
children of Israel out. And then he led them forth, so
miraculously made a way through the Red Sea, brought them to
Mount Sinai. He was there when God entered
into the covenant, when God spoke the 10 words from the midst of
all the blackness and darkness of the mount. And then he was
there 40 days and 40 nights in the mount receiving further instructions
and commandments from God. And it was during that period
that the children of Israel had committed gross idolatry in the
matter of the golden calf. And God would disinherit these
people. These people that he had done so much for by the hand
of Moses. And Moses is the man who stands
in the breach and he prays to God for them that he does not
disinherit them. And God is pleased to hear his
prayer. How much This man had witnessed, and yes, all his prayer
there at the end of Exodus 33, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He could see nothing to see,
except God was pleased to open his eyes to all his wonders. God must open the eyes of man. I beseech thee, show me, more
literally, It is caused me to say. That's the particular tense that
is used in the Hebrew. It's the verb to say. It's a
causative sense of the verb caused me to say. It's rightly rendered
then show me. God has to show him. God has
to open his eyes to the truth. Show me thy glory. And God makes all his glory pass
before him. And God proclaims the name of
the Lord before him. That's the revelation. Calvin
observes God appeared to Moses by an extraordinary mode of revelation. Oh, but what a revelation! He
did not, of course, see God with the physical eye. Moses did not
see God with the physical eye. Yes, when he was called, back
in Exodus chapter 3, he saw the bush. He saw the bush that was
burning, and yet the bush was not consumed. And he saw that
with his physical eye, and it was a revelation of God. But
what an extraordinary manner it was that God revealed himself.
And this is the way of God, is it not? He has to open blind
eyes. that men might behold the glorious
truths that are unfolding here in his words. David in the 119th
Psalm, does he not pray to God to open his eyes? Open thou mine
eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Oh friends, is this the manner
in which we come to the Word of God? We don't just want to
be able to read it with our natural sight, and we don't just want
to familiarize ourselves with it, that's good. And it's profitable
for us to read and to memorize the Scriptures, to store our
minds with the Word of God. But we want God to open our eyes
to those glorious truths that are couched here in the very
language of Holy Scripture. in the New Testament we have
it do we not in that expression in Ephesians 1.18 the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened the eyes of your understanding
how that God has to cause us to understand these things to
enlighten our eyes Or when we come to the last book
of Scripture, the book of the Revelation, there in chapter
3 and verse 18, anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou
mayest see. Or do we pray over these things,
that our eyes might be anointed with that precious eye salve
that we may see, really see? This is what Elijah is doing
then, he is praying, he is addressing the Lord because he knows that
this is the work of God. Only God can open the eyes of
this man to spiritual realities. There is a spiritual world. And
of course a natural man receives not the things of the Spirit
of God, they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them.
Says Paul, because they are spiritually discerned. Elisha prayed and
said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes that he may see. Now we need to plead with God
to open our eyes and to open the eyes of others, to open the
eyes of sinners, those who are near and dear to us, those who
belong to us, He said. We can only cry to the Lord that
He would open their eyes. The words again of the Lord Jesus
Christ There at the end of Matthew in heaven he says, No man knoweth
the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. He to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Now, there are two verbs
to will that could have been used and it's a stronger of the
two verbs that is employed by the Lord Jesus there in Matthew
11 27 neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he
to whomsoever the son will or willeth to whom the son willeth
to reveal him it's the sovereignty of Christ will you sir it is
the Lord who is sovereign here with regards to the opening the
eyes, that is the spiritual eyes of those who are blind. And all
those miracles, we have this miracle that Elijah is able to
perform as God is pleased to hear his prayer and to blind
the eyes, the physical sight of these Syrians and then to
take the scales from their eyes that they see that they're in
the midst of Syria, the midst of Samaria. or when we come to
the ministry of Christ in the New Testament and he does give
sight to those who literally were blind physically blind yet
all of these things are but signs I say and direct us to this great
spiritual truth that it is God God who has to open the eyes
of blind sinners that they might see and believe the wondrous
truths that are recorded and set before us here in the scripture. But beside the work of God beside
the work of God here we also see the significance of the word
of God. When the young man is overwhelmed
at the sight of the armies of the Assyrians As we see in verse
15, when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone
forth, behold and host compass the city both with horses and
chariots. And his servant said unto him,
Alas, my master, how shall we do? He feels there's no hope, there's
no way of escape. The Syrians are encamped all
about, Dothan. Elisha surely is going to be
taken and asked my master as 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 he open his eyes
that he may see Yes, here is the word of God.
He can say to him, fear not for they that be with us are more
than they that be with them. But his eyes have got to be open
to the truth of God's word. Oh, but what a word, what a word
it is that the Prophet speaks. Here we have God's promise you
see. And what a promise it is. How precious, how precious friends
are the fear nots. of the Word of God. Why so many
fear not? Because God's people often are
a fearful people. We know that no Scripture is
redundant. The Lord Jesus said that men
must give account to God for every idle word. There's no idle
words in Scripture. Why does God say time and again
to His children, fear not? Because we're afraid. We're a
fearful people. How precious then are these words.
Again we have it back in Exodus 14, the ministry of Moses as
the servant of God when the children of Israel have been brought out
of Egypt. after the Passover and yet now
the armies of Pharaoh are pursuing them and the Red Sea is before
them and the mountains on every side of them. And what does Moses
say there in Exodus 14? Fear ye not. Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of God. Oh, to see that God is the Saviour. But what must they do? They are
to stand still we sang that lovely verse did
we not just now in the metrical version of Psalm 46 verse 10
be still and know that I am God now that's not fatalism it is
not fatalism to recognize that God is God and to be still you see is not
to be passive Here we see how whilst the prophet
comes and speaks this word of promise, these comforting words
to his servant, he also prays. And is it not true that there's
a sense in which when we're praying we're still before God, we're
recognizing God as that one who is sovereign? It's not fatalism,
it's faith in God. And we see what happens here. The Lord opened the eyes of the
young man and he saw and behold. Now look, look at the language
at use, the words. The Lord opened the eyes of the
young man and he saw and behold. It's so emphatic the language
here. He saw And behold, you know the force of that word,
behold, it means to look, to see clearly, to contemplate,
to look intensely, to set the sight on a thing. He saw and
behold, here was a wondrous sight that he witnessed. The language
I say is such emphatic language. And it's not dissimilar to the
language that we find in the 41st chapter of Isaiah's book. In Isaiah 41 verse
10, Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed. For I
am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee,
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed
and confounded, they shall be as nothing. And they that strive
with thee shall perish, thou shalt seek them and shalt not
find them, even them that contended with thee. They that war against
thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I,
the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee,
Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Oh, the many fear
not you see that we have in these verses. And to whom is this word
spoken, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel, ye few men
it says in the margin ye few men of Israel, do we not friends
often have to confess that we do feel our fewness we feel our
smallness, we feel our weakness or we are but a handful of people
The remnant is in this day alas a very little remnant. But what is it that the Prophet
says to this man? What is the word of God to this
young man in verse 16? Fear not, for they that be with
us are more than they that be with them. They are more with
us than there are with them. if our eyes are but opened as
this young man's eyes were opened by the Lord 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 it is
Paul says well we look not at the things that are seen but
the things which are not seen the things that are seen are
temporal They are passing the things that are seen. They are
temporal. The unseen things are the eternal things. Oh friends,
is that not the sight of faith? Is that not the sight of faith?
Oh, to have our eyes open. That God would open our eyes
to His Word and to the exceeding great and precious promises that
are contained in the Scriptures. Why are these things written?
Why do we still have the Old Testament? I've heard some say,
oh, Christians only read the New Testament. But God has not
just given us the New Testament, He's given us the Old Testament
also. And all these things, Paul tells us, happened unto them
for ensamples. And they're written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come. They're written for
us. And so when we come to these portions in the Old Testament,
we read these great historic accounts. We don't just read
as history, I trust. We see something of the great
mystery of faith in these things. Were not God's ancient people
a typical people? Isn't Israel a type of the Church? The Church is the spiritual Israel
of God. They're not all Israel that are
of Israel. God's real Israel is a spiritual
Israel. And what is it that God is promising
here in our text tonight? It's a promise of protection. It's a promise of protection.
When the king of Syria said, Go spy where he, that is, Elisha,
is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying,
Behold, he is in Dotha, Therefore sent it hither horses and chariots
and a great host, and they came by night and compassed the city
about." What is the need now? Why Elisha and his servant, they
need to know God's protecting hand. And this is what God is
promising here in the text. Now, that godly king Hezekiah also
knew something of this selfsame truth in the second book of Chronicles I love I love this man Hezekiah this godly king and there in
second Chronicles chapter 32 verses 7 and 8. Now, it's not
the Syrians, it's the Assyrians. We have to distinguish, of course,
between Syrians and Assyrians. It was the Assyrians who came
under Sennacherib and fought against all the walled cities
of Judah and came to the very gates of Jerusalem And it seemed that Jerusalem
would fall, but that was not the case. That
was not the case. God protected His people. Listen
to the words of this Godly King here in 2 Chronicles 32 verse
7. He says, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the King of Assyria, for all the multitude that is with him.
for there be more with us than with him with him is an arm of
flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight
our battles and the people rested themselves upon the words of
Hezekiah king of Judah the people rested themselves they leaned
upon the words of that godly king So similar is it not to
what we have here in the days of Elisha. Now, as I say, we
sang a part of Psalm 46 in the metrical version. It's a great
psalm. Tluthus' psalm, is it not? It's
a great hymn. Of course, Ein Festerberg is
based upon Psalm 46. And we have that word and it's
repeated in the psalm verses 7 and 11. In other words, we
have the same verse as it were twice over. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge
sealer. Oh, there we need to stop. There
we need to stand still. There we need to consider God's
promise of protection to his people. The Lord of hosts is
with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge, verse 7 and verse
11. And why is it so stated twice? Because we need to hear it and
we need to hear it again. The opening word of the psalm,
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Always not just a help, He's
not just a help in trouble. He's not just a present help
in trouble. He's a very present help in trouble. That's what it says. It's so
emphatic, the language of the psalmist and God's protection
for his people. God delivers his people. He saves
his people from all their external enemies. And the Syrians could
do nothing, nothing at all against the prophet Elisha why one with
God is a majority is he not? and here is God on the side of
his prophet he protects from all our external enemies he protects
us from all our inward foes we have many inward foes do we not?
all those awful fears and God constantly says fear not, fear
thou not all those fears, all those doubts, all those misgivings,
all those risings of sin in our old nature. It was that gracious man, Ralph
Erskine, who said, all that I anger to myself. Here's my greatest
enemy, he says, myself, all that I anger to myself. But God delivers
us, you see, even from ourselves. And from all our sins, the Psalmist
says again, Psalm 55 and verse 18, He hath delivered my soul
in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were
many with me. And who are the many with us?
Why, it's God. And it's God in all the fullness
of His divine being. It's the glorious Jehovah, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. And this is the one to whom Elisha
prays. It's the Lord. As you see there
in verse 17, it's the God of the covenant. It's Jehovah, the
unchanging One. 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. Well the Lord bless his word
for his name's sake.