'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. 9. And
the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that them
pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down. 10. And
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. 11.
Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this
thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew
me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12. 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. 13. 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.
14. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host:
and they came by night, and compassed the city about. 15. 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? 16. And he answered,
Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with
them. 17. 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. 18. 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.'--2 KINGS vi 8-18.
The revelation of the angel guard around Elisha is the important part
of this incident, but the preliminaries to it may yield some
instruction. The first point to be noted is the friendly relations
between the king and the prophet. The king was probably Joram, who had
given up Baal worship, though still retaining the calves at Bethel and
Dan (2 Kings iii 2). The whole tone of things is changed from the
stormy days of Elijah. The prophet is frequently an inhabitant of the
capital, and a trusted counsellor. No doubt much of this improvement
was owing to Elijah's undaunted denunciation, but much, too, was due to
Elisha's gentle persuasion. We are often tempted to do injustice to the
sterner predecessors when we see how the gentler ways of their
followers seem to accomplish more than theirs did. Unless winter storms
had come first, spring sunshine would draw forth few flowers. All
honour to the heroes who begin the fight, and do not see the victory.
The Syrian king's way of warfare was not by a regular continued
invasion, but by dashes across the border on undefended places; and
time after time he found himself out in his calculations, and troops
enough to beat him off massed where he meant to strike. No wonder that
he suspected treachery. The prompt answer of his servants implies that
Elisha's intervention was well known by them, and measures the
reputation in which he stood. Let no one suppose that thwarting Syria
was an unworthy use of a supernatural gift. The preservation of Israel
and the revelation of God were worthy ends, and all that is accessory
to a worthy end is worthy. It is foolish to call anything a trifle
which serves a great purpose.
Joram had learned to obey the prophet, and his people and their enemies
had learned that Elisha was a prophet. That was much. He had no great
revelations of the deep things of God to give to his generation or to
posterity, but he gave directions as to practical life which bore on
the wellbeing of the state; and that office was not less divinely
conferred. It is a good thing when God's servants are not afraid to
make their voices heard in politics, and a safeguard for a nation when
their counsels are taken. The quiet prophet was more to Israel than an
army.
The 'great host' sent to capture Elisha shows the terror which he had
inspired, and the importance attached to getting possession of him. It
is, too, an odd instance of the inconsistency of godless men, in that
it never occurs to the Syrian king that Elisha, who knew all his
schemes, might know this one too, or that horses and chariots were of
little use against a man who had Heaven to back him. Dothan lay on an
isolated hill in a wide plain, and could easily be surrounded. A
night-march offered the chance of a surprise, which seems to have been
prevented by the unusually early rising of Elisha's servant, the young
successor of Gehazi. Apparently he had gone out of the little city
before he discovered the besiegers, and then rushed back in terror.
Note the strongly contrasted pictures of the lad and his master,--the
one representing the despair of sense, the other the confidence of
faith. The lad's passionate exclamation was most natural, and fear
darkening to bewildered helplessness is reasonable to men who only see
the material and visible dangers and enemies that beset every life. The
wonder is, not that we should sometimes be afraid, but that we should
ever be free from fear, if we look only at visible facts. Worse foes
ring us round than those whose armour glittered in the morning sunshine
at Dothan, and we are as helpless to cope with them as that frightened
youth was. Any man who calmly reflects on the possibilities and
certainties of his life will find abundant reason for a sinking heart.
So much that is dreadful and sad may come, and so much must come, that
the boldest may well shrink, and the most resourceful cry 'Alas! how
shall we do?' It is not courage, but blindness, which enables godless
men to front life so unconcernedly.
How nobly the calmness of Elisha shows beside the lad's alarm! Probably
both were now outside the city, as the immediately following verse
speaks of the mountain as the scene. If so, Elisha had gone forth to
meet the enemy, and that must have brought fresh terror to his servant.
The quiet 'Fear not!' was of little use without the assurance of the
next clause; for there is no more idle expenditure of breath than in
telling a man not to be afraid, and doing nothing to remove the grounds
of his fear. That is all that the world can do to comfort or hearten.
'Fear not?' the youth might well have said. 'It is all very easy to say
that; but look there! How can I help being afraid?' There is only one
way to help it, and that is to believe that 'they that be with us are
more than they that be with them.' The true and only conqueror of
reasonable fear is still more reasonable trust. The two parts played by
the servant and the prophet are united in the man who cleaves to Jesus
Christ as his defence. He would not cling so close to Him but for the
fear that tightens his grip. He would tremble far more but for that
grip. He who says in his heart, 'What time I am afraid, I will trust in
Thee,' will presently get to saying, 'I will trust, and not be afraid.'
Note, further, the sight seen by opened eyes. Elisha did not pray that
the heavenly guards might come; for they were there already. Nor does
it appear that he saw them; for he did not need that heightened
condition of spiritual perception which appears to be meant by the
opening of the eyes. And what a sight the trembling young man saw!
Where he had seen only barren rock or sparse vegetation, he saw that
same fiery host that had attended Elijah in his translation, now
enclosing the unarmed prophet and himself within a flaming ring. The
manifestation, not the presence, of the angel guards was the miracle.
It was a momentary unveiling of what always was, and would be after the
curtain was drawn again. I suppose that no reverent reader of Scripture
can doubt the existence of angelic beings, or their office to 'minister
to the heirs of salvation.' To us, indeed, who know Him who is the
'Head of all principalities and powers,' the doctrine of angelic
ministration is of less importance than that of Christ's divine help;
but the latter truth does not supersede the former, though its
brightness throws the other, about which we know so much less, into
comparative shadow. But we may still learn from this transient
disclosure of 'the things that are,' the permanent truth of the
ever-active presence of divinely sent helps and guards, with all who
trust in Him.
This manifestation has several features of resemblance to that given to
Jacob, in his most defenceless hour, when he saw beside his unprotected
camp of women and children 'God's host,' and, in a rapture of thankful
wonder, named the place 'Mahanaim,'--'Two Camps.' The sight teaches us
that God's messengers are ever near, and then most near when needed
most. It tells us, too, that they come in the form needed. They are
warriors when we are ringed about by foes, counsellors when we are
perplexed, comforters when we mourn. Their shapes are as varied as our
needs, and ever correspond to 'the present distress.' They come in
power sufficient to conquer. There was force enough circling the
prophet to have annihilated all the Syrians. True, they did not draw
their celestial swords, but they were there, and their presence was
enough for the triumphant faith of the guarded men. What living thing
could come through that wall of fire?
Our eyes are blinded and we need to have them cleared, if not in the
same manner as this lad's, yet in an analogous way. We look so
constantly at the things seen that we have no sight for the unseen.
Worldliness, sin, unbelief, sense and its trifles, time and its
transitoriness, blind the eyes of our mind; and we need those of sense
to be closed, that these may open. The truest vision is the vision of
faith. It is certain, direct, and conclusive. The world says, 'Seeing
is believing'; the gospel says, 'Believing is seeing.' If we would but
live near to Jesus Christ, pray to Him to touch our blind eyeballs, and
turn away from the dazzling unrealities which sense brings, we should
find Him 'the master-light of all our seeing,' and be sure of the
eternal, invisible things, with an assurance superior to that given by
the keenest sight in the brightest sunshine. When we are blind to
earth, we see earth glorified by angel presences, and fear and despair
and helplessness and sorrow flee away from our tranquil hearts. If, on
the other hand, we fix our gaze on earth and its trifles, there will
generally be more to alarm than to encourage, and we shall do well to
be afraid, if we do not see, as in such a case we shall certainly not
see, the fiery wall around us, behind which God keeps His people safe.
Note, finally, the blindness. Elisha's dealing with the advancing host
of Syria can only be rightly estimated by looking beyond the limits of
the text. His object was to carry the whole army into Samaria, that
they might there be won by giving them bread to eat and water to drink,
and so heaping coals of fire on their head. The prophet, who was in so
many points a foreshadowing of the gospel type of excellence, was the
first to show the right way to conquer. Nineteen centuries of so-called
Christianity have not brought 'Christendom' to practise Elisha's recipe
for finishing a war. It succeeded in his hands; for, after that feast
and liberation of a captured army, 'the bands of Syria came no more
into the land of Israel.' How could they, as long as the remembrance of
that kindness lasted? Pity that the same sort of treatment were not
tried to-day!
The blindness which fell on the Syrians does not seem to have been
total loss of sight,--for, if so, they could not have followed Elisha
to Samaria, nearly fifteen miles off,--but rather an ocular affection
which prevented them from recognising what they saw. It was a
supernatural impediment in any case, however far it extended. God did
'according to the word of Elisha,' a wonderful inversion of the
ordinary formula. But that was because Elisha was doing according to
the word of the Lord. The prayers which are 'according to His will' are
the answered prayers.
They who see not the angels, see nothing clearly. There is a mist over
every eye that beholds only the things of time, which prevents it from
seeing these as they are, and from recognising a prophet when he is
before them. If we would rightly estimate the objects of sense, we must
discern, shining through them, the far loftier and greater things of
eternity. That flaming background is needed to supply a scale by which
to measure the others. The flat plain of Lombardy is most beautiful
when its flatness is seen girdled by the giant Alps, where lies the
purity of the snow which feeds the rivers that fertilise the levels
below.
'IMPOSSIBLE,--ONLY I SAW IT'
'Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord,
Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour he sold for a
shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of
Samaria. 2. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man
of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven,
might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine
eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. 3. And there were four leprous men at
the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we
here until we die? 4. If we say, We will enter into the city, then the
famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still
here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of
the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us,
we shall but die. 5. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the
camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of
the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. 6. For the Lord had
made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise
of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to
another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the
Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7. Wherefore
they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their
horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their
life. 8. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp,
they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence
silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and
entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid
it. 9. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day
of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning
light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may
go and tell the king's household. 10. So they came and called unto the
porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of
the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man,
but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. 11. And he
called the porters; and they told it to the king's house within. 12.
And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now
shew you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry;
therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the
field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them
alive, and get into the city 13. And one of his servants answered and
said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain,
which, are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of
Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the
multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and
see. 14. They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent
after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. 15. And they went
after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and
vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the
messengers returned, and told the king. 16. And the people went out,
and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was
sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according
to the word of the Lord.'--2 KINGS vii. 1-16.
The keynote of this incident lies in the promise in the first verse.
The whole story illustrates man's too frequent rejection of God's
promise, and God's wonderful way of fulfilling it.
I. We note first the promise which common-sense finds incredible. It
came from Elisha when all seemed desperate. The wonderfully vivid
narrative in the previous chapter tells a pitiful tale of women boiling
their children, of unclean food worth more than its weight in silver,
of a king worked up to a pitch of frenzy and murderous designs, and
renouncing his allegiance to Jehovah. Such faith as he had was strained
to the breaking point, and his messenger was sent to tell the prophet
that the king would not 'wait for the Lord any longer.' That was the
moment chosen to speak the promise. It came, as God's helps, both of
promise and act, so often come, at the very nick of time, when faith is
ready to fail and human aid is vain. Before we had learned our hopeless
state, they would come too soon for our good; after faith had wholly
parted from its moorings, they would come too late.
Note the precision and confidence of the promise. The hour of the
fulfilment, and the price of flour and the cheaper barley are stated.
Man's promises are vague; God's are specific. Mark, too, the entire
silence of the promise as to the mode of its fulfilment. Probably
Elisha knew as little as any one, how it was going to be accomplished.
The particularity and vagueness combined are remarkable. A hint as to
how the thing was to be done would have made the belief in the fact so
much easier. Yes, and just because it would have smoothed the road for
worthless belief, it was not given, but the apparently impossible
promise was left in nakedness, for any one who needed sense to animate
his faith, to scoff at. Is not that emphatic assertion of the fact, and
emphatic silence as to the 'how,' a frequent characteristic of God's
promises? If ever we are kept in the dark as to the latter, it is for
our good, and for the encouragement of our growth in utter dependence
and perfect trust. It is not well for the trusting soul to ask too
curiously about methods intervening between the promise in the present
and its accomplishment in the future. It is better for peace and the
simplicity of our trust, that we should be content to cling to the
faithful word, and to 'believe... that it shall be even as it was told'
us, without troubling ourselves about His way of effecting His
purposes. Passengers are not admitted to the engine-room, nor allowed
on the bridge. Let them leave all the working of the ship to the
captain.
II. The noble who blurted out his incredulity had a great deal to say
for himself from the common-sense and worldly point of view. But he
need not have sneered, in the same breath, at old miracles and new. His
sarcasm about 'windows in heaven' refers to the story of the flood; and
perhaps there is a hint of allusion to the manna. He neither believed
these ancient deeds, nor the promise for to-morrow. Why not? Simply
because he--wise as he thought himself--could not see any way of
bringing it about. There are many of us yet who have the same modest
opinion of our own acuteness, and go on the supposition that what we do
not see is invisible, and what we cannot do, or imagine done, is
impossible. Why should not the Lord 'make windows in heaven' if He
please? Or, how does the pert objector know that that is the only way
of fulfilling the promise? He will be taught that he has not quite
exhausted all the possibilities open to Omnipotence, and that something
much simpler than windows in heaven can do what is wanted. Unbelief
which rejects God's plain promises because it does not see how they can
be fulfilled is common enough still, and is as unreasonable as it is
impertinent. Elisha was as ignorant as this nobleman was, of the means,
but his faith fixed its eyes on the faithful word, and trusted, while
sense, self-conceit, and worldliness, a mole pretending to have an
eagle's eye, declared that to be impossible which it could not see the
way to bring about, and thereby exposed only its own blind arrogance.
III. Elisha's answer (v. 2) sounds like Elijah. The utmost gentleness
is stirred to pronounce condemnation on self-confident unbelief, and a
gentler gentleness than Elisha's, even Christ's, shrinks not from
executing the sentence. Is not the sentence on this scoffing lord the
very sentence pronounced ever on unbelief? In his case, it was
fulfilled by the crowd that pressed, in their ravenous hunger, through
the gate, and trod him down; but in ordinary cases, in our days, the
natural operation of unbelief is to shut men out from the fruition, of
which faith is the necessary and only condition. It is no avenging and
arbitrarily imposed exclusion, but the necessary result of self-made
disqualification, which brings on the unbeliever the doom, 'Thou shalt
not eat thereof.' The blessings of the religious life on earth, and the
glories of its perfection in heaven, are only enjoyable through faith.
These are not so plainly visible to the unbelieving heart as the scene
at the gate was to the nobleman; but, in some measure, even those who
do not possess them do, in some lucid moments, see their worth. It is
one sad part of the sad lives of godless men that they have their
seasons of calm weather, when, in the clearer atmosphere, they catch
glimpses of their true good, but that they yet do not behold it long
and close enough to be smitten with the desire to possess it; and so
the sight remains inoperative, or adds to their condemnation. Not to
taste is the sadder fate, because there has been sight. To have eyes
opened at last to our own folly, and to see the rich provision of God's
table, when it is too late, will be a chief pang of future
retribution,--as it sometimes is of present god-lessness.
IV. Passing over for the present the account of the discovery by the
four lepers, we may next note God's way of fulfilling His promise. A
panic would spread fast in an undisciplined army, and history supplies
examples of the swift change into a mob under the influence of
groundless terror. There is nothing wonderful in the helter-skelter
rush for the Jordan, or in the road being littered with abandoned
baggage. The divine intervention produced the impression which
naturally brought the flight about, and the coincidence of the prophecy
and the panic which fulfilled it stamp both as divinely originated. But
if we looked on events as devoutly, and saw into their true character
as deeply as the author of the Books of Kings does, we should see that
many a similar coincidence, which we trace no farther than to men or
circumstances, was due to the same divine cause which made the Syrians
to hear 'the noise of a great host.' Track the river of life to its
source, and you come to God.
'The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth.' Imaginary terrors are apt to
beset those who have no trust in God. If we fear Him, we need have no
other fear; but if we have not Him for our anchorage, we shall be
driven by gusts of passion and terror. The unseen possibilities of
attack and defeat may well terrify a man who has not the unseen God to
keep him calm.
Windows in heaven, then, were not needed, and the arrogance which said
'Impossible!' had not measured all the resources of God. A very wise
scientist here in England proved that the Atlantic could not be crossed
by a steamer, and the first steamer that did cross took out copies of
his book. How foolish men's demonstrations of impossibility look beside
God's deliverances! We have not gone through all the chambers of His
storehouse, and 'His ways are far above, out of our sight.' Let us hold
fast by the faith that His arm is strong to do whatever His lips are
gracious to engage, nor let our inability to see where the river gets
through the mountains ever make us doubt that it will reach the sunlit
ocean.
V. We may throw together the remaining parts of the incident, as
showing how the fulfilled promise was received. These four lepers had
heard nothing of it, when despair made them venturesome. How reckless
they were, and how they harp on the one gloomy word 'die'! The thought
was familiar to them, and yet, lepers though they were, life was sweet,
and a chance of prolonging it, even as slaves, was worth trying. They
chose twilight, that they might be unobserved. We can see them creeping
cautiously, with beating hearts, towards the camp, expecting every
moment to be challenged, and possibly slain. How their caution would
diminish and their wonder grow, as they passed from end to end, and
found no one! There stood the horses and asses, left behind lest their
footfalls should betray the flight, and every tent empty of men and
full of spoil. The lepers seem to have gone right through the camp
before they ventured to begin plundering; for the 'uttermost part' in
verse 5 and that in verse 8 are naturally understood of its opposite
extremities. Then, secure against surprise, they eat and drink as
ravenously as men who had been starving so long would do. Twilight had
deepened into darkness before hunger and greed were satisfied. Not till
then did they awake to their duty; and even when they bethink
themselves, it is fear of punishment, not care for a city full of
hungry men, that moves them. But their tardy awaking to duty is couched
in words which carry a great truth, especially to all who have tasted
the Bread of Life. It is 'not well' to 'hold our peace' in 'a day of
good tidings.' If we have good news, especially _the_ good news, its
possession obliges us to impart it. If we have tasted the graciousness
of the Lord, we are bound to tell of the stores we have found. 'He that
withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.' 'Of how much sorer
punishment...shall he be thought worthy,' who keeps to himself the food
of the world?
Lepers were strange messengers of good, but the message graces the
bringer, and they who tell good tidings are sure of a welcome. God does
not choose great men for the heralds of His mercy, but the
qualification is personal experience. These four could only say, 'We
have seen and tasted,' but that was enough. The king's caution was very
natural, and would have been quite blameless, if God's promise had not
been spoken the day before. But that made the slowness to believe a
sin. Feeling one's way over untried ice is prudent; but if we have
previously been told that it will bear, it proves our distrust of him
who told us. The despatch of the chariots to make a reconnaissance was
needless trouble. But men are always apt to think that faith is but a
shaky ground of certitude unless it be backed up by sense. When God
gives us His word to trust to, we are wisest if we trust to it alone,
and we may save ourselves the trouble of sending out scouts to see if
it is really beginning to be fulfilled. Elisha had no need to wait the
report of the charioteers before he believed in the fulfilment of the
promise, which others had found incredible when spoken, and too good to
be true even when fulfilled. Let us trust God, whether sense can attest
the incipient accomplishment of His words or no.