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. This little passage from 2 Kings
6 continues on the narrative that we have of Elisha's preservation
of the people, the King of Israel and the people of Israel, and
how the Lord used his prophet in order to save and deliver
the people of choice. And we've seen before in the
prophetic ministry of Elisha and others that they spoke in
pictures and with patterns of the ministry of someone greater
who was yet to come. This is one of the beautiful
things that we can see in the Old Testament. The Old Testament
speaks to us of history and individuals and battles and great feasts
and events and lots of commonplace things also. But it speaks to
us in all of those stories about the Lord Jesus Christ and the
things that he would do. And we can see that in the examples
of Elisha. Remember how the axe head swam
when it had fallen into the water? Well, that showed us that the
laws of nature were subject to the will of God. And later in
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, we could see how even greater
miracles like that were effected when the Lord himself walked
on the water. And Peter, his disciple, was
able to do so as well. This is the One who rules all
things. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, has all things at His authority. He fed the hungry. He healed the sick. The dead
were raised to life. And we can see these pictured
in the Old Testament. And here is another miracle given
to show God's total absolute power and his protection over
those that he loves, his people and his rule over their enemies. First the Lord had asked the
young, or first Elisha had asked the Lord to open the young man's
eyes that he may see the army of God, the host of the army
of God on the mountaintops surrounding the army of God. great host of
Syria that had come to arrest Elisha. The young man had been
anxious when he saw the Syrian troops and he said, how shall
we do? What's going to happen to us? And that is often the
kind of thing that we think when we get into trouble. What's going
to happen to us? But we must never forget that
the Lord is in control, that the Lord is in charge. And those
that be for us, if we trust in him, are more than they which
be against us. And the very tops of the mountains
are adorned with the hosts of heaven, ready at a moment's notice
to come down and defend the people of God and protect them. if the
Lord would just give his word so to do. Now the host of Israel came down
to arrest Elisha. And I can well imagine that that
young man was no longer as anxious as he had been as these two went
out of the city of Dothan in order to meet this great host
that had come with chariots and horses. And it must have been
quite a scene. something like they would do
in Hollywood perhaps, to have this whole great army and these
two men standing in front of them. And Elisha prays and he
prays that the whole army might be made blind, beset with some
kind of delusion, some sort of confusion and bewilderment, because
we must assume that they still had some ability to follow Elisha
as he led them all the way to Samaria. But what an extraordinary
sight that must have been. These two men on foot, an old
man and a young man, and behind them, following slowly the army
of Syria. What a picture that must have
been. Can you imagine them coming up
to the walls of Samaria and the guards on top of the wall looking
out and thinking, there's an army approaching us. Quick, shut
the gates. And then Elisha would say, leave
the gates open, we're coming through. And he walked the whole
army into the centre of Samaria. And that surely was an amazing
demonstration of the power of God with his people. And the
power that had been vested in Elisha We should never imagine that
the strength of the church's enemies whether that's the devil
or the forces of evil or any opposition that is set against
God, that is set against truth. You know, it does us well to
remember that God is in control of this world, managing the affairs
for the well-being of his people. That's not the same thing as
the well-being for some moral code. or the well-being of some
established historical pattern of life that we've come to imagine
is Christianity. God is looking after his people.
He's looking after their souls. He's accomplishing his purpose
in the gathering in of his church and his elect and his people.
And God allows evil to go only so far and then he stops it,
and then he prevents it, and he works all things for the purpose
of his grace and his glory. Elisha prays again to the Lord,
and he says to the Lord, open their eyes, that they might behold
the situation that they are in. And can you imagine what terrible
fear must have gripped those men at that moment? Their eyes
were opened. And where were they? They were
in the middle of Samaria. They were in the middle of their
enemy's camp. They were completely surrounded
by armed men. And their life was forfeit. And
they were dead. That was it. That was the moment.
That was the moment right there. Suddenly it dawned upon them
where they were, how defenceless they were, how much of a predicament
they were in. And there must have been terrible
fear gripped these men as they realised their position. They had a justifiable fear that
the King of Israel was about to smite them because he was
jumping around. Can I smite them? Can I smite
them? Can I kill these men? Can I take their lives? Can we
get all of their weapons? Can we keep their horses and
their chariots? He was so excited. He saw a victory
handed to him on a plate. But Elisha speaks kindly. And
here is a lovely gospel picture of grace. You know, we don't
have to go around hurting the enemies of God. We don't have
to go around setting ourselves up as some moral magistrate in
order to come down hard on those who are disobedient. That's not
our job. Our job is to be kind. Our job
is to be gracious. Our job is to reflect these principles
of Christ that he taught and he lived in the day of his ministry. Judgment is mine. Vengeance is
mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. Let the Lord do
his business. That wasn't a licious job. And
so the old prophet speaks kindly and graciously of these men that
had been delivered into their hands. This is grace, this is
gospel. When the Lord opens our eyes
in the new birth to that first view of our dangerous predicament. When the Lord opens our eyes
to see that we are sinners, to see that we deserve judgment
and that that judgment is just a moment away. In that first
moment when we have our eyes our understanding, our discernment,
given that we are in such a dangerous state. We see ourselves, as it
were, in the hand of our enemy, captive and defenseless, likely
to die without a hope and plunged to a lost eternity. And as we
await that blow that will take us to hell, we hear strange and
wonderful words of mercy. Justice cries out, shall I smite? Shall I smite? And the words of gospel mercy
are heard. Thou shalt not smite them. Let
them go free. And it's a wonderful thing when
the gospel takes us captive. It's a wonderful things when
our eyes are open to see the great King, not as judge, but
as a merciful saviour. And as we eat and drink and find
liberty where we expected to find nothing but judgment and
death. The Lord Jesus Christ has power
to open the eyes of the blind. He is the power over poor sinners,
to give them that gift of sight that they may see Him, their
Saviour, their Redeemer, their King. Men and women are naturally
blinded by sin. Oh, they think that they can
see. They think that they understand. They think that they know what's
what in this world. And they live accordingly in
their own self-righteousness. But when the Lord allows us to
see just how needy we are, how sinful we are, and how appropriate
judgment is, That is the forerunner to those words of love and mercy
and peace. Thou shalt not smite them, let
them go free. It's a beautiful picture that
we have of divine power to protect and sovereign grace to save. Grace and glory coming together
here in this one single event. And our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the same today as he always was, powerful to save,
jealous to deliver his people from their enemies. And he makes
friends of his enemies, and he makes free men of captives. And in such ways, Elisha and
the Old Testament prophets open our eyes to see the Lord Jesus
Christ as a worthy Saviour and Lord. Amen.