2nd Kings chapter 6 and we're reading from verse 8. This is the word of the Lord. 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, that's Elisha, sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are come down. 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 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 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 chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my 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.

Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. Sometimes when we are reading the word of God, and I hope we do, I hope you do read your Bible. I hope we all read our Bible so as to become familiar with its message and more especially with its author. The Bible is God's message to the world concerning his son, Jesus Christ, and his great salvation. And it's an important book for us to read. And sometimes when we read the scriptures, we'll come to a verse that just seems to jump right off the page and thrill us.

I'm sure that you've experienced that in your own Bible reading. And for me, this chapter contains one of those verses. I wonder, I should have perhaps told you this before we read the chapter together and let you guess which verse it might be. But I wonder if you might have found that verse interesting and important as well. I'll come to that in a moment.

We don't know how long had passed since Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, had written his letter to the king of Israel seeking help for his servant Naaman. Remember we spoke about Naaman a few weeks ago and how the king of Syria sent a letter to the king of Israel saying, help this man, heal this man of his leprosy. But it does appear that there was now some trouble between Israel and Syria again. And any goodwill caused by the blessing of Naaman and the cure of Naaman seems now to have been forgotten. And the Syrians were back to the old game of raiding Israel, sending these raiding parties into Israel and stealing whatever they could. You might remember that's how Naaman's little maid had been kidnapped in the first place, but that's a previous time.

But we do discover that Elisha is still continuing to minister in Israel. And he is still continuing to minister and serve the Lord despite the idolatry that persisted amongst the people. One of the old names for a prophet is, or was, Seir. And it is certainly true that the Lord God gave Elisha insights and intelligences. He allowed him to see things that he could not have known except in a supernatural way.

And one of the revelations that God provided to Elisha was details of efforts by this Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, to ambush and slay Joram, the king of Israel. And several times Elisha warned the king not to travel to a particular place, thereby saving him from being attacked and probably overwhelmed and maybe even killed. The king of Syria was perplexed about this and he actually assumed that Joram must have a spy in his court who was warning the king of Israel of the danger. However, one of Ben Hadad's counsellors knew of Elisha.

How he knew, we don't know. How he was so wise concerning Elisha, we're not told. But I wonder if perhaps he had got his information from Naaman. Maybe he had been even one of those travellers with Naaman and had seen and heard and known about Elisha that time when Naaman came to visit him.

And he concluded, rather wisely, that Elisha must be warning the king of Ben Hadad's plans. So another plan was hatched. Ben Hadad would send a company of soldiers to detain Elisha and bring him back to Syria. Now, this seems like a kind of silly idea, really. If Elisha knew what the Syrian king was scheming concerning Joram the king of Israel, might he not have been expected also to know the plans that the king of Syria was making against his own person? Be that as it may, it's not clear that Ben Hadad actually meant Elisha any harm, at least at this stage. And it is even possible that he might have been trying to recruit Elisha.

I suspect that these kings had the idea that if they paid someone enough money or they gave someone enough honour that their allegiance would be buyable and that they might be able to offer them some attractive payment to make them mercenary even against their own king and country. Certainly, Ben-Hadad would have been eager to have such an insightful prophet as it were with a direct line to God to work for him and to warn him about the schemes of his enemies.

The king learned that Elisha was in Dothan. That's a small town near to Samaria. And he sent a large force to bring the prophet to Damascus. The soldiers approached Dothan by night, planning to surprise the city and arrest Elisha in the morning. Well, we learn of one young man who certainly got a surprise, and this was Elisha's servant. We could say his new servant, because this isn't Gehazi. This is a young man who now is serving and supporting Elisha. And as is the responsibilities of such a young man, he rose early in the morning to be about his business.

But he was shocked when he looked out of the city. Maybe he had gone out of the city, I don't know, to do something or else he just looked from the city wall. But he was shocked to find the town surrounded by Syrian soldiers. And he returned to Elisha in a panic. And he cried to Elisha, alas, my master, how shall we do? What's going to happen to us? There was real danger here. And it seemed to him that there was no likelihood of escape.

But now here's that verse that I was talking about. Here's the verse that for me stands out in this passage. Elisha says to his servant in verse 16, fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And the youth must have wondered what the prophet was talking about. What did the prophet mean by this?

He'd likely not seen too many, he'd not been with Elisha for very long. He perhaps had not seen very many miracles that Elisha had performed. But that was about to change. And Elisha prayed for his servant. He said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And then we read, 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.

Now, let me say this just by way of explanation. The young man's eyes were not closed shut. It wasn't that he had his eyelids closed. He could see natural things, like he saw the army of Syria surrounding the town where they were. He could see natural things, but now the Lord gave him a vision of spiritual things.

A host of angels in the form of fiery horses and chariots filling the tops of the hills and surrounding the Syrian troops. It was a vision to demonstrate to this young man how easy it is for God to turn the tables completely in what is perceived to be a hopeless situation. And in fact, just worth noting perhaps, is that of all these fiery horses and chariots, these angels of the Lord here in this glorious vision, not a sword was drawn nor a chariot wheel moved. The Lord had no need to destroy these men by his angelic host. This picture was so that the young man understood that God was in control and that God was in charge.

Another resolution to this problem for Elisha was preferable. Nevertheless, the servant of Elisha would never forget that God's servants are constantly surrounded with a wall of defenders, greatly outnumbering any foe that comes against them. And I want you to remember that too because that is why this account in scripture is given to us, is given to the church, so that you and I who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ might know that those who are for us are more than they that be with our enemies. Elisha went out to where the Syrians were now approaching the city.

They had no idea about this fiery host on the mountaintops. And he asked them their purpose. But before he did that, he prayed again to the Lord and asked that these Syrians might be made blind. We may see that they would be made unable to discern or understand what was happening to them. It's unlikely that they were actually made blind so that they were stumbling around in the darkness because they clearly were able to see to follow Elisha to Samaria. So it appears rather that they were just unable to discern what was going on around about them.

And Elisha inquired what they wanted, and in answer to their questions, he tells them, this is not the way, neither is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. Which, as they were seeking Elisha, was not a lie, but it was sufficiently vague as to bewilder them further.

And Elisha led them straight into the heart of the city of Samaria, where they were at once totally surrounded by the armed soldiers and citizens of the city. Once inside the city walls, the prophet asked the Lord to restore the sight of the Syrian soldiers. which, when done, these men realised that they were defenceless and trapped. Joram, the king of Samaria, the king of Israel, was eager to kill the Syrians, but was sufficiently wise or respectful to Elisha, who had brought them to him to ask his permission. Elisha would not have them hurt.

Instead, he requested that they be fed and refreshed and sent back home. And this was done, which was an act of mercy towards the Syrians and must have somewhat embarrassed them, if not shamed them. And they ceased, at least for some time, from sending their armed bands into the borders of Israel at that time. Now, what can we learn from these verses? What can we learn from this passage? Here's a couple of things, perhaps, that we can take away from them.

We learn that the Lord Jesus is always watching over his people and that he is always defending his children from harm. This is the verse that rejoices my heart when I read this account from Elisha's life. Elisha's faith in the Lord meant that he did not fear, even when confronted with great danger, because he believed himself to be safe and under the protection of his God. But this picture of the army of fiery horses and chariots, it had to be granted to the servant because the servant didn't have that experience or understanding. And it's a vision, it's a view, it's a thought that ought to be adopted by all the Lord's people in every situation.

We need not fear what men can do to us. We need not fear what Satan can do when we commit our life and our soul into God's care and keeping. The role of God's angels is to assist and minister to God's elect people. And it's not just prophets, but all the Lord's people who are under his protection and guarded from countless threats, some that we know of, some that we don't, some that are seen, some that are unseen.

And you might be young who are listening to these words at the moment. You might be young. But if you trust the Lord, you need never be afraid. When we say that Jesus loves us, when we say that God cares for us, when we say our Saviour will deliver us, we mean it. And if we look for the Lord Jesus in every situation and we look for his helping hand, we shall see that hand of care and that protection much more frequently than perhaps we do if we don't think about such things.

Of course, the plots of Ben-Hadad were known to God. He knows everything. And the schemes of Satan will have no more success against the church than Ben-Hadad achieved against Elisha. Trusting the Lord means relying on him every day and living as though we can see those fiery chariots surrounding us. The psalmist could say, Psalm 118 verse 6, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear what can man do unto me. And as the Lord's people, we have the right to be bold in the cause of God and truth. Because remember, they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Here's another wee lesson.

Did you notice how the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened and the eyes of the Syrians were shut or blinded when Elisha prayed? I think there's a lovely application here concerning the gospel and how some people's eyes are closed to see the truth of the gospel and others are opened to see and understand the message of salvation by the death and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice, it is the Lord. Elisha prayed to the Lord to do these things. Notice that it is the Lord who opens and shuts. The eyes of all men and women and boys and girls are closed because of sin.

And they cannot see or understand the message of the gospel. when the Lord gives eyes to see, when the Lord gives ears to hear the gospel message, then salvation comes to that individual and grace is found in trusting Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ said, for judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind. This is our sovereign God. This is our sovereign saviour. Ask the Lord that he might give you eyes to see his salvation and to know the way of life in trusting Jesus Christ.

And then just finally, when Elisha took the Syrians into Samaria, Joram wanted to kill them, but Elisha had mercy. He instead had them refreshed and returned to their homes. And I think this is a lovely picture of the grace we find in trusting Jesus Christ for mercy and forgiveness. The Syrians must have expected at once to die. They seemed to be condemned, but instead they obtained mercy. Instead of death, they found refreshment and surprising life. By nature, we are enemies of God.

And yet when the Lord overcomes our opposition and makes us willing to trust Him, we find that He blesses us in new and unexpected ways. He refreshes us. No one who trusts in the Lord Jesus will ever be left unloved and uncared for. No matter what happens to us in this life, no one who trusts the Lord Jesus will ever be left unloved and uncared for. The Lord will provide everything we need out of his goodness according to his riches.

The Syrians ate and drank at a table spread for them in the midst of their enemies. And so too, all who are the Lord's discover in the words of David, in Psalm 23, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. May Christ enable us to taste and see that the Lord is good. Amen.