Praying To Remember That If God Is For Us Who Can Be Against Us

 The Bible is full of stories that bring a smile to our faces for a variety of reasons.  We can do with a few smiles during these long days of the pandemic so I thought we'd reflect on this little story today.

If you read the Bible you will find this story in 2 Kings 6.  It begins by telling the story of an enemy king who was at war with Israel. He would tell his officers where they were next going to attack God's people and unknown to him, God would reveal that information to Elisha the prophet who would then inform the king.  The enemy would show up and find protection prepared against him.  This enemy king got angrier and angrier to the point where he called his officers together to find out who was leaking information about their battle plans.  They knew that they weren't responsible and somehow knew about Elisha.  They said:

“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

So this enemy king ordered troops to go and capture Elisha and imprison him and they went by night and surround the city where Elisha was.  When Elisha got up the next morning he said them, and so did his servant, who was, not surprisingly, scared.  "What shall we do?" he asked Elisha.  And here's the next bit of the story:

2 Kings 6:16-23: “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.”

And he led them to Samaria. After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?” “Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory. 2 Kings 6:16-23

Well, the first thing I love about this story is the comfort that comes from knowing that God has more spiritual forces working on our behalf - by far - than any forces that come against us that we can see. 

Then the next thing that makes me smile is how creative God is if we will just pray and trust Him with our circumstances no matter how dire and frightening they may seem to us.  God struck the enemy so they couldn't see and then it's Elisha himself who goes right up to the enemy and says, "Follow me and I will lead you to the man you are looking for."  Hilarious isn't it?  He's who they want and he's leading them because they are blind.

Even the king of Israel asks ordinary man Elisha what they should do with the enemy and we can be sure that if we are taking time to listen to God and walk in His path, others will want to know where we get our wisdom from and want to be informed by it.

And then in God's upside down way of doing things, they blessed the enemy by giving them food and water - a great feast.  Now I don't know how I'd feel about eating a great feast surrounded by people who had captured me that I had been trying to attack and kill but apparently they did.  When they went back to the enemy king he somehow realized that it was useless to fight against God and his attacks stopped.

I don't know how God will work in your circumstances or mine.  We all have so many enemies surrounding us and attacking us these days, don't we, with disease, restrictions, sense of sadness at the separation and loneliness at being apart from those we love and can't visit; for some there's real financial hardship either now or looming as the days of restriction continue.  We see all sorts of problems seemingly stacked one on top of another and it all looks impossible to us.  God wants to encourage us to remember that there’s more going on than what we see.  God is willing and able to communicate to us just as He did with Elisha and bring freedom and peace for the whole nation through Him.  Let’s pray today and affirm our trust in God and welcome Him to do amazing things in our lives, shall we?

Heavenly Father, our problems look like mountains to us but they aren’t even mole hills to You.  You must smile a bit sometimes when You see us getting frantic over things that You already have in control.  Lord, open our ears to hear all that You want to tell us today.  If you could communicate enemy attack plans to Isaiah, You can certainly help us to know all we need to know today to live above the stresses and strains and make a difference for Your Kingdom. 

You opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant so he could see all the angels and spiritual warriors that were working on their side and Lord, even if we can’t see the same with our own eyes, we pray for eyes of faith to remember and rest in the trust that they are there at Your command and available to do powerful things on our behalf.

Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation. The angel of the Lord stands guard around those who have respect for him and he saves them.  Hebrews 1:14, Psalm 34:7

However You choose to get Your will and work accomplished today, we don’t know for sure but we do know that You’ve chosen to use us and we want to make ourselves available to You with joy and trust and even excitement at how You might do amazing things through us even as you did through Elisha.  We just want to say we are Your people, ready and willing.  Here we are Lord, send us, to work our Your purposes today.  Amen