If you have your Bibles tonight, please turn with me to 2 Kings. We’ll be in chapter 6. We will pick up in verse 8. And while you are turning there, I’d like for you to consider your concept of a king. When you think of a king, what words come to mind? What ideas come to mind? I actually asked some students that question this week. One of them told me he thinks of a funny, purple dress! I don’t know if that is really what he thought of or if he was just joking! Another student, I told him I was going to say what he said tonight and he said, “No, don’t say it!” So I’m not going to say what he said, even though I thought it was kind of funny! So not everyone took me seriously, but for those that did take me seriously with that question, “authoritarian” was one word. I think that’s a very American answer. “Advisor, wisdom, powerful, overseer, worthy, crowned.” We have many ideas of kings, but what are those words you thought of? We’ll see some of those that students mentioned in our passage tonight and we’ll even see one big one that I think often gets overlooked; one quality of kingship. The author of 2 Kings has three kings in view in this passage. He has the Syrian king, the king that is warring against Israel. He has the king of Israel who is actually being indicted for his unfaithfulness to the covenant. He is unnamed here. And then there is the rule of God through the prophet; God as King.
So let’s read 2 Kings chapter 6, starting in verse 8:
“Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, ‘At such and such a place shall be my camp.’ But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, ‘Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.’ And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.
And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, ‘Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?’ And one of his servants said, ‘None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.’ And he said, ‘Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.’ It was told him, ‘Behold, he is in Dothan.’ So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please strike this people with blindness.’ So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And Elisha said to them, ‘This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.’ And he led them to Samaria.
As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, ‘O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.’ So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, ‘My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?’ He answered, ‘You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.’ So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.”
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, You give us Your Word. You speak through Your Word. Lord, we ask that You would send Your Spirit tonight to illuminate our minds, to give us eyes to see that we may see what Your Spirit says in these words tonight. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
We’ll cover three points in this passage tonight. First, the futility of man’s rebellion. Second, the fear of God’s servant. And last, the feast of God’s enemies.
The Futility of Man’s Rebellion
First, notice the futility of rebellion. Look at verses 8 through 14. Israel and Syria were at war. The Syrians were seeking to lay ambushes for the people of Israel and the prophet, Elisha, was informing the king of Israel of the Syrians’ plans in advance. He was giving them away. He was the prophet-spy for Israel, an informant with a God-given ability to see into the plans of the enemy. And you see the Syrian king in verse 11. A literal reading says, “The heart of the king stormed” or “raged at the matter.” He said to his servants, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” He has this chaotic response. He’s angry. He asking, “Which one of you is a double-agent? Which one of you is telling them our battle plans?” because he could only see with his physical eyes. He couldn’t fathom the possibility that Elisha was giving them away, that Elisha had that knowledge. And as the prophet of God, Elisha has the ability to see invisible realities.
And look at the response of one of his servants in verse 12. “None, my lord the king, but Elisha the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” And then look at verse 14. The king thinks under the cover of night that he can surround Elisha with a great army and seize him. We clearly see God’s sovereignty here, don’t we? His kingly sovereignty. He is in total control. It wouldn’t matter if the king fired all his advisors and just gave orders at the last minute so that his plans would be concealed from any potential double-agent. It wouldn’t matter. Elisha knows the words that he speaks in his bedroom.
We aren’t always so different from this king, are we? We scheme. We plan in our sin. We believe the lies. We want what sin offers. We want the things that God forbids – those things that look good or feel good or will get us ahead. And what we fail to see in those moments, in those moments where we are deceived by sin, we fail to see this futility of rebellion against God. He knows your plans. He knows your thoughts. He’s not taken by surprise. Jesus asks a rhetorical question along these same lines. In Mark 8 He says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Gaining the world means gaining the things of worldliness. Those things that John mentions in his letter – the lust of the eyes. Those things that look good but they’re against God’s law. The lust of the flesh, those things that would feel good, but they are against God’s command. And the sinful pride of life – glorifying self instead of glorifying God. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?”
What is there to gain in rebellion? There’s nothing. It’s futile. What is there to gain in sin? Those plans cannot and will not come to fruition. Listen to the words of Psalm 2. They remind me of this Syrian king; how they describe rebellion against God. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” You cannot set yourself against God and come to an autonomy. You cannot. God’s response to rebellious scheming is laughter and ridicule. Do you see the futility? Do you see the futility under the sovereign rule of the Almighty to seek self?
When I was a young boy, I went to the beach with my family, some of my extended family on my dad’s side, and I remember we had this inflatable alligator – one of those big, blow up inflatables that you could get on top of and my brothers, we would wrestle each other and see who could stay on the longest. And one evening, the wind just really picked up and the next thing I knew I saw that inflatable alligator darting out into the ocean. It’s the fastest I’ve ever seen an alligator swim! And I was, you know, very self-confident and had a very accurate view of my swimming ability. I started chasing it! I went after it! And I heard this booming voice – the wind was blowing hard, I was swimming hard, and I heard this booming voice saying, “No, Stephen, no!” It was my grandpa. It was the only time I ever heard him yell. He was telling me, he was warning me, “That is not a good idea!”
What’s the point? What if I had caught up? I would have gotten to the alligator, the inflatable alligator, and I would have been washed out to sea. I didn’t know I could be pulled out by the current, by the wind. There was no way I was going to catch it. I could easily drown. He yelled because his message was urgent. In other words, it was a futile attempt to get something that didn’t matter. Like my grandpa, this passage is warning us of the danger of rebellion. It’s futile. Like Elisha knew the words the king spoke in his own bedroom, God knows your thoughts. He knows our secret sins. He knows the little rebellions of our hearts. What are you holding onto? What are you holding onto that has no end, no meaningful end, no purpose? It’s worthless in comparison to serving the true king. What does it profit you to gain that temporary pleasure? “No wisdom. No understanding. No counsel can avail against the Lord.” Do you believe that word from Proverbs? Do you see the futility in rebellion against God?
The Fear of God’s Servant
Second, the fear of God’s servant. Look at verses 15 through 19 with me. Elisha’s servant is tempted, like the Syrian king, to see only what’s in front of him. And he’s not really the same as the king, is he? After all, he is the servant of Elisha. But look at his distress in verse 15. He says, “Alas, my master, what shall we do?” He is surrounded by armies. He thinks it’s all over. And look at how Elisha comforts him. Look at how he comforts him. First, he tells him the truth of the situation. Don’t you love verse 16? “Do not be afraid. For those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” God is infinitely more powerful than this sneaky, Syrian army that comes under cover of nightfall. His armies are, in the words of one theologian, “unspeakably more numerous than those of the Syrians.”
When we look at what’s in front of our face, when we look with our physical eyes in our distress, we need to hold onto the truth of our situation. We need to remember the words of God, promises of God to us. Like Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of Christ?” Matthew Henry says, “When we are magnifying the causes of our fear, we ought to possess ourselves with clear and great and high thoughts of God and the invisible world.” How often do we magnify the causes of our fear? So Elisha comforts him by word, by telling him the truth, but he also comforts him by showing him the truth. He prays in verse 17 that the servant’s eyes would be opened. “And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” God gives the servant eyes to see. He gives him the ability to see the protection of the Almighty.
Now if you call me later tonight and tell me you saw a chariot of fire on your way home, I’m going to say, “What did you have for lunch?” This was a specific time in redemptive history where “God spoke through the prophets and other various ways,” as Hebrews 1 tells us. “But now, God speaks to us by His Son.” He speaks to us by His Word. How do we get these eyes to see God’s promises and trust Him? How do we get those eyes? How do we get the eyes to see His protection and power? It’s by faith. It’s the eyes of faith. It’s a gift of God. It’s a gift of the Spirit. Through eyes of faith we see the unseen realities of God. It is God who opens our eyes. He gives us the eyes to see, the ears to hear. Through Jesus, we can see. By the power of the Spirit, we are made new and given eyes to see. You must be born again to have eyes of faith. You must be born again. Paul says, “The natural man cannot understand the things of God.” The natural man, as opposed to the new creation, created in Christ Jesus.
This narrative, maybe, reminds you – it reminds me – of the account of Jesus with His disciples in the boat in Mark chapter 4. Jesus is sleeping when the storm comes in and His disciples wake up, wake Him up and ask Him the question, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing? Do You not care that we are perishing?” It sounds like the servant here. Do you remember how Jesus responds? In His own power, first He calms the storm by His word, but then He says, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” It’s faith. It’s confidence in God’s power. It’s confidence in His Word. God gives the eyes of faith to see unseen realities, to see the truth around us.
Many of you know my wife is due to have my son on June 1. And so there, naturally, has been a time of reflection, a season of reflection as we become parents for the first time. And as I was reflecting this week, I was thinking, “How will my son, how will he know – how will he know when he is in distress, when he is in some trouble of some kind, when he is filled up with the anxieties and difficulties of life – how will he know that he can come to his parents for help, he can come to his parents for protection, for comfort? How will he know that we love him, that we’ll be his advocates, that we’ll protect him?” He will know because we’ll tell him. He will know because we’ll tell him the truth. We will seek, in an imperfect way I’m sure, to model that love to him. That’s how he’ll know.
Isn’t that what God does for us? He reveals Himself to us. He tells us through His Word and shows us by giving us eyes of faith. He shows us His shepherding protection of His people when they are in distress. He is the Good Shepherd. This distress that you and I and everyone has experienced, this distress is a good measure of where your faith is, of the strength of your faith. How would you honestly self-evaluate your faith right now? Think of a time, a recent time, when you’ve been in some kind of distress. Maybe you were anxious about finances. Maybe it was a relationship. Maybe it was your son or daughter going on a path that you’re not sure is so great. Did you run to Christ in prayer? Did you trust Him in faith? And of course we fail at this all the time, and even that failure, even our failure can be distressing. But our response must be faith. Exercising our faith by repentance; exercising our faith in the form of trusting God in the midst of our circumstances and trials. It is in that exercising of your faith that it grows, that it grows stronger. As Paul teaches in Romans 4, it is building an endurance. It will produce endurance in us.
One theologian puts it this way. “The opening of our eyes will be the silencing of our fears. In the dark, we are most apt to be frightened. The clearer sight we have of the sovereignty and power of heaven, the less we shall fear the calamities of the earth.” Where is your faith tonight? Is it in what you can see with your physical eyes or are you looking at life through lenses of faith? That is what fearful servants do. God’s fearful servants look at life through lenses of faith.
The Feast of God’s Enemies
Moving on in the narrative we see this contrast and progression of vision, of sight. First, we saw the Syrian king is looking only with eyes of his body. And Elisha, who can see invisible truths, asks God to give this vision to the servant. And now, Elisha asks God to strike the Syrian army with blindness so that they can’t even see with their physical eyes. He leads them to Samaria to the Israelite camp. Proverbs again. “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Thirdly, we’ll see the feast of God’s enemies. We’ve seen many qualities of kings in God’s rule of the situation so far – His sovereignty. He’s in control. His might. His protection of His people. His wisdom and His power. His plan. He’s a King who does all of those things. But we see another in these latter verses. It might not be the first one that many of us think of. The first thing to pop into your head when you think, “What is a king?” But look at verses 20 through 23. Again, Elisha prays that their eyes would be opened. And what do they see? Their eyes are opened and they see they are surrounded. They’re toast! They had been delivered into the hands of the enemy. By plotting against the Lord, they set a trap for themselves. Scripture repeats over and over, but Psalm 7:15 says, “The wicked makes a pit digging it out and falls into the hole that he has made.” And look at verse 21, which I think is the central note in the passage, the culmination of the passage. The Israelite king says, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?” Elisha responds with a rebuke to the king. He says instead to give them a feast. And in this way, Elisha ends the war with the Syrians.
And to understand what’s going on here, we have to understand the main thrust of 1 and 2 Kings. Why were they written? Why were 1 and 2 Kings written? It was written after Israel was taken captive into exile. Kings answers the question, “Why did God judge us? Why did God judge Israel? Why don’t we have a king on the throne anymore?” It shows Israel how they were unfaithful to the covenant in Deuteronomy. It shows them how the kings of Israel led the people into idolatry over and over. They did not follow the law of God. They didn’t rule rightly. So it’s like this law document where the prophets are the covenant lawyers and they are presenting their case for why Israel was judged. And in this passage, he does so in a poetic way. See, this Israelite king was happy to follow Elisha’s words of counsel when it ensured him that he had political victory, when it assured him that he was going to make advances. But he wasn’t willing to listen to Elisha concerning the law of God. Now that the king sees his next political victory has been delivered to him on his doorstep, he is exposed. He doesn’t care that they are defenseless captives. He wants bloodshed. Israel was supposed to be a kingdom of God’s rule through man. They were supposed to be a light to the nations, attracting the surrounding nations by the light of God’s presence, by following His laws and His commands, by Him in their midst. And the Israelite king misses that point. He misses it. He wants bloodshed.
And you and I, we aren’t so different than these kings – the Syrian king or the Israelite king. It is a wonder, it is a wonder that in our sin and rebellion God doesn’t strike us down. Listen to this verse from the hymn, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” “Behold the Man upon a cross, my sin, my sin upon His shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.” It was our sin that held Him to the cross. If it weren’t for God’s grace, you at the cross, you at the cross would say, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Strike Him down! Strike Him down!” Isn’t it glorious, isn’t it glorious that God loves His people in spite of that? Isn’t that kingly? When we think of a king, the ideal king even, we should think of God’s mercy. He is a merciful King. When that reality of God’s grace gets ahold of you, when it gets deep down into you and you see your sin, you change. You necessarily change when you are given faith. The nations change seeing this gracious God, just as the Syrians stopped warring with Israel after this event. It changes you. We don’t know that it was a saving faith for the Syrians, but it was as if they had heaping hot coals on their head. It changed them. They stopped warring.
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And then He calls us, He calls us to a feast. He calls us to feast of His body broken for us. A feast of His blood shed for His people. The good news of the Gospel is the good news of the kingdom. “The Gospel of the kingdom is at hand,” Jesus says. Repent! Christ’s kingdom has come. As Israel was not able to rule rightly, Christ’s kingdom is in its place, so Jesus calls us to repentance. And His plan doesn’t end there. That’s not the end of the story. He calls us to follow the paradigm of the King, the paradigm of His rule. He calls us to show His mercy. This grace is what will change those around us. We have to be careful not to affirm sin in being gracious, but we have to reflect this mercy, show this grace and mercy. Hear the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 6. “But I say to you who hear” – you who hear, you who have been given ears to hear – “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Skipping down to verse 32, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you, for even sinners do the same? And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Who are those people who really get on your nerves? Who are those people you are tempted to hate in your heart? Those people that you avoid at all costs? Your King would have you love them. Your King would have you show them grace. If you see your sin, the futility of your sin tonight, the futility of your rebellion tonight, then you have been given eyes of faith to see. Trust the Word of the King and be merciful as your Father is merciful.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we are short-sighted people. We often fail to see Your working in the world. We often fail to be employed as Your servants, as those with whom You will show mercy to the world. Would You give us eyes to see Your reality, which is to say the reality. We ask that You would bless us and keep us as we go on from here. That You would make Your face to shine upon us and be gracious to us. Lift up Your countenance upon us and give us peace. It’s in the name of the faithful and true witness, the Peacemaker, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our King Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.