2 Kings 6:14-18
Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "Lord , I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then 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. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord , and said, "Strike this people, I pray, with blindness." And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
Introduction:
Benhadad, the king of Syria discovers that his most secret invasion plans to invade and conquer Israel are somehow divulged to his enemy in some mysterious way. Syria and Israel in the text have been locking horns in a waged war against each other and this passage of scripture picks up a conversation where the king is in his bed-chamber conducting a secret war strategy and in a counsel with his trusted servants.
In chapter 6, we hear the king said to his servants: “in such and such place, I will place my command post, because it’s determined that such a place is the best place to make inroads in Israel, and it serves as the best place to spring our greatest surprise ambush and they would be least able to offer resistance,
But notice… while this strategy session is going on with the king, Elisha, the man of God blows up the king’s plan and sends a message to the king of Israel warning him not to take his army to the place where Benhadad plans to camp. You can hear Elisha saying to the king of Israel: "He setting up an ambush to trap you! Don’t get caught in the trap. The king of Israel responded and heeded the advice of the man of God and saved himself not once but twice!
With his plans crushed once again, the king of Syria became angry. He coundn't understand why every time he dashed across the border to invade and set up an ambush in an undefended place that Israel had beat him top the spot and had enough troops to beat back the ambush. Look at him! He’s troubled and so confused to such an extent, that he makes the scathing accusation that there is treachery in his army ranks and he believes that someone in his army has breached national security and is leaking military secrets to the enemy.
The king said: I got a question….. which one of us is for the king of Israel? One of his trusted servants said to the king ; Nobody your majesty. The problem is not with our army, the problem is Elisha, that prophet in Israel tells the King Of Israel the very words you spoke in your bedchamber ……
Notice the significance of what the servant said…that prophet, that preacher told the king everything, What the king didn’t know was God was protecting and defending Israel and he use the prophet who stood as God’s liaison had the ear of the king every time there was danger either near or in the camp… and every time the king took heed to what the man of God said both the king and the nation was spared… this lets us know 2 important things about the kind of relationship God want to have with his servants and with his people:
First, God is a fierce protector of everybody who he says are his. Now, this does not mean that we will not go through test, trials, persecutions and tribulation, …but it does mean that even in the midst of all this, ….we still can be of good cheer because Jesus said “I have overcome the world”. It means… that God has an all seeing eye… so much so that he keeps us all from dangers we see… and all of the dangers that we don’t see….It means that we are more than conquerors through HIM (Jesus Christ) who loves each and every one of us…
God loved Israel. They were his formed and chosen people. All throughout their history, He sent prophets, judges, seers, signs and miracles to let them know that He was their God and they were his people… Here, in this text…he uses a prophet and a diplomat in Elisha… to keep them several steps ahead of the whim of their enemy… And what he did for the children of Israel back then… he will do the same for us now! And the key here to their protection is first… he had the attention of the prophet and second… he had the ear of the king.
Can I park here for a moment? When the preacher preaches the word of God the right way… and the people of God take heed to that preached word….signs and wonders…miracles and deliverance can happen in a moment and a twinkling of an eye to everyone that will believe……When God is the joy and the strength of your life…He will move all pain, misery and strife…. He promised to keep you…..never to leave you and he has never, never come short of His Word….When God has the undivided attention of any of his servants; Whenever that servant fasts and pray …and stays in the narrow way…I tell you… God will give you insight that goes way beyond your eyesight. …God will put substance in your hope to match your faith…and give evidence of things you can see because you hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness..…
According to your faith…God will show you the unseen evidence that can’t be seen by the naked eye…God will let you see what even you enemies attempting to do and hear what the enemy said about you. God will warn you ahead of time when the enemy is lurking around you poising himself to launch a sneak attack against you….God is omnipotent and never changing…. God is not limited or blocked from secret rendezvous or meetings. God is omniscient…He hears what you say and knows what you think….He is omnipresent. He’s everywhere at the same time that means Ain’t no mountain high enough,, ,ain’t no valley low enough…Ain’t no river wise enough or any underground cave deep or dark enough to keep God from you…. And then…..
Second, God wants you to know that our enemies are HIS enemies. Whenever an enemy, demonic or domestic fight against you, attacks you, slanders you, injures you, or say all manner of evil against you. Whatever they do to you, they also do it to God …Jesus said: whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you also do it unto me. Since we must see life from God’s eyes, let me say this too: despite all this… God, even now in HIS grace is showing mercy and loving restraint not just toward us, but toward our enemy too ….He lets it rain on the just as well as the unjust…
A WARNING to ALL of the ENEMIES OF GOD AND THE SAINTS:
GRACE is not forever… It’s for a limited time only….God is longsuffering…but God does have a cut-off date for evil too….Look around at all the evil things that are going on and go back to what Jesus said would be going on in the end times ….Jesus said thing would get worse and worse…iniquity will abound….people would turn and practice root working and witchcraft…thinking that this would give them control over their destiny and over other people…I telling you that YOUR cut-off date is right around the corner…
Let me tell you something else!
When it comes to many grotest and blasphemous things demonic people say about you …and about HIM… It’s a good thing God got a “thick skin” …but notice….no matter what they say… it doesn’t change who he is… because in the end…. He’s is still God… and you want to know something else…nothing they say… changes what he’s going to do will do to them in response to what they say as well as what they do…if they refuse to humble themselves, pray, seek his face…and turn from their wicked ways….
And for those of us who’s skin has gotten a little thin…because of the fierce persecutions that come your way …I come by to tell you today this war that we are in ..is Spiritual, Psychological and Physical war…Beloved, think it not strange whwn fiery trials come to try you as if some strange thing has happened to you…
In this warfare of life, a whole lot negative and grotest will be said constantly about you directly and indirectly by the Devil. The devil will unload his arsenal of gross and vile slanderous saying in a machine-gun like fashion in an blatant effort to mess you up so bad in the head that if you don’t ask God to quicken your spirit and thicken your skin, you will knuckle under the pressure and become suicidal because the devil got you convinced that your life ain’t worth the living and make you think that you are better off dead than alive. That’s a lie from the pit of hell…
Because God lives, you can face tomorrow…Because Jesus lives..all of your sorrows can be gone Because he lives you really knows who holds your future … and this life is worth the living just because he lives…
God knows all about our enemies. He knows how they think. He knows what they say behind our backs. He knows every evil plan they have for us. He watches them they as they move under the cloak of darkness in the booth, in the back, down the alley… down-lowing and low-lowing,
The Bible said some of them lay in wait, at night.. always; slipping. sliding, peeping and hiding , plotting and planning, scamming and flim-flaming; always looking for any opportunity to do the devil’s bidding to ambush us and catch us unawares, stealing, killing, drive- by shooting, dope peddling, car-jacking, breaking and entering, prostituting, and numbers running..Yes God know about all of our enemies….But God will make all of your enemies your footstool…God will, if you let him cut off your enemies…and sometimes, if your enemies let him…God will convert your enemies….
Well, the king of Syria, learning that Elisha the prophet told the king of Israel of his plans, sent a detachment of spies to find him so he could take him….the spies left the king and found out that Elisha was living in Dothan, a place that was about 15 miles from Samaria. The bible said the king of Syria sent a great host and they were under orders to bring him back to Syria dead or alive.
Question: Why did this king go to such great length to send 50,000 armed men after one man of God?
One Possibility....
Evidently for some reason, they thought Elisha would be in hiding .. but when you check the record of how Elisha operated. They would soon discover that Elisha was not hard to find…What do you mean preacher…Well….If the king had asked Naaman about Elisha …Naaman would have told him : King, there’s no need to send a whole lot of men because Elisha doesn’t live in any strong-hold, nor does he have any bodyguards with any guards, nor had any such great interest in the people that he needed to fear dealing with drama from a crowd.
Another Possibility...
Maybe he heard when Elijah was still alive, Syria sent 1 captain and 50 men to arrest the man of God but when they got there …fire came down from heaven and consumed the 50 men, so this king decided to send 50,000 men after Elisha and Just that quick he wasn’t thinking because if Elisha could tell the king of Israel about war plans that were hatched from a bed room meeting what makes him think that Elisha would not know that they were coming after him…
The Theory of why a Nation was conquered
Whenever a kingdom was captured and defeated, it was said in theory…the reason it happened was… the god of the captors was stronger than the god of the captive…That theory applied to every nation but the nation of Israel…. Whenever Israel was held captive ….it happened because of their disobedience and God… chose the nation that put Israel in captivity…but whenever Israel fought a war in obedience… they were victorious every time… over all of her enemies… that’s because…it was God …that gave them the victory… and
One other thing… that the king forgot… the warning …that came from Yahweh …. not to his anointed… IT WAS DANGEROUS FOR ANYBODY TO HARM A PROPHET OF GOD
I must sound a warning to everybody who fights against God…against his preachers…his servants that fight against God, his people, his prophet…his program…you don’t… know what you do…..
IN CLOSING:
The Syrian army came by night… and surrounded Dothan, where Elisha lived… Elisha had a young servant …who was an early riser… The bible said…he happened… to be wide awake… when the army came…The bible said… the servant went outside… and when he got outside ….he look around… and he saw…that the whole city …was surrounded …by Syrian horses and chariots…when he saw this he ran straight to Elisha and I heard him say Elisha the whole city is surrounded….what are we going to do?
ELISHA'S RESPONSE:
I heard Elisha say…Don’t be afraid ….for they that are with us are more than they that be with them….Ands at that moment Elisha looked up toward heaven and then he prayed: Lord…I pray to you… that you open his eyes that he may see….the bible said that God opened the young man’s eyes and when he looked up at the mountain he saw another army behind the Syrian army…He saw horses and chariots of fire….ain’t God alright…This is why …we must see life from God’s eyes….Maybe this is why King David said: I will lift my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help my help…my help…my help comes from the Lord
CONCLUSION:
If God be for you….who can really be against you…In order to see your life from God’s eye, you got to open you life to God and let God show you what really is going on….
Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "Lord , I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then 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. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord , and said, "Strike this people, I pray, with blindness." And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
Introduction:
Benhadad, the king of Syria discovers that his most secret invasion plans to invade and conquer Israel are somehow divulged to his enemy in some mysterious way. Syria and Israel in the text have been locking horns in a waged war against each other and this passage of scripture picks up a conversation where the king is in his bed-chamber conducting a secret war strategy and in a counsel with his trusted servants.
In chapter 6, we hear the king said to his servants: “in such and such place, I will place my command post, because it’s determined that such a place is the best place to make inroads in Israel, and it serves as the best place to spring our greatest surprise ambush and they would be least able to offer resistance,
But notice… while this strategy session is going on with the king, Elisha, the man of God blows up the king’s plan and sends a message to the king of Israel warning him not to take his army to the place where Benhadad plans to camp. You can hear Elisha saying to the king of Israel: "He setting up an ambush to trap you! Don’t get caught in the trap. The king of Israel responded and heeded the advice of the man of God and saved himself not once but twice!
With his plans crushed once again, the king of Syria became angry. He coundn't understand why every time he dashed across the border to invade and set up an ambush in an undefended place that Israel had beat him top the spot and had enough troops to beat back the ambush. Look at him! He’s troubled and so confused to such an extent, that he makes the scathing accusation that there is treachery in his army ranks and he believes that someone in his army has breached national security and is leaking military secrets to the enemy.
The king said: I got a question….. which one of us is for the king of Israel? One of his trusted servants said to the king ; Nobody your majesty. The problem is not with our army, the problem is Elisha, that prophet in Israel tells the King Of Israel the very words you spoke in your bedchamber ……
Notice the significance of what the servant said…that prophet, that preacher told the king everything, What the king didn’t know was God was protecting and defending Israel and he use the prophet who stood as God’s liaison had the ear of the king every time there was danger either near or in the camp… and every time the king took heed to what the man of God said both the king and the nation was spared… this lets us know 2 important things about the kind of relationship God want to have with his servants and with his people:
First, God is a fierce protector of everybody who he says are his. Now, this does not mean that we will not go through test, trials, persecutions and tribulation, …but it does mean that even in the midst of all this, ….we still can be of good cheer because Jesus said “I have overcome the world”. It means… that God has an all seeing eye… so much so that he keeps us all from dangers we see… and all of the dangers that we don’t see….It means that we are more than conquerors through HIM (Jesus Christ) who loves each and every one of us…
God loved Israel. They were his formed and chosen people. All throughout their history, He sent prophets, judges, seers, signs and miracles to let them know that He was their God and they were his people… Here, in this text…he uses a prophet and a diplomat in Elisha… to keep them several steps ahead of the whim of their enemy… And what he did for the children of Israel back then… he will do the same for us now! And the key here to their protection is first… he had the attention of the prophet and second… he had the ear of the king.
Can I park here for a moment? When the preacher preaches the word of God the right way… and the people of God take heed to that preached word….signs and wonders…miracles and deliverance can happen in a moment and a twinkling of an eye to everyone that will believe……When God is the joy and the strength of your life…He will move all pain, misery and strife…. He promised to keep you…..never to leave you and he has never, never come short of His Word….When God has the undivided attention of any of his servants; Whenever that servant fasts and pray …and stays in the narrow way…I tell you… God will give you insight that goes way beyond your eyesight. …God will put substance in your hope to match your faith…and give evidence of things you can see because you hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness..…
According to your faith…God will show you the unseen evidence that can’t be seen by the naked eye…God will let you see what even you enemies attempting to do and hear what the enemy said about you. God will warn you ahead of time when the enemy is lurking around you poising himself to launch a sneak attack against you….God is omnipotent and never changing…. God is not limited or blocked from secret rendezvous or meetings. God is omniscient…He hears what you say and knows what you think….He is omnipresent. He’s everywhere at the same time that means Ain’t no mountain high enough,, ,ain’t no valley low enough…Ain’t no river wise enough or any underground cave deep or dark enough to keep God from you…. And then…..
Second, God wants you to know that our enemies are HIS enemies. Whenever an enemy, demonic or domestic fight against you, attacks you, slanders you, injures you, or say all manner of evil against you. Whatever they do to you, they also do it to God …Jesus said: whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you also do it unto me. Since we must see life from God’s eyes, let me say this too: despite all this… God, even now in HIS grace is showing mercy and loving restraint not just toward us, but toward our enemy too ….He lets it rain on the just as well as the unjust…
A WARNING to ALL of the ENEMIES OF GOD AND THE SAINTS:
GRACE is not forever… It’s for a limited time only….God is longsuffering…but God does have a cut-off date for evil too….Look around at all the evil things that are going on and go back to what Jesus said would be going on in the end times ….Jesus said thing would get worse and worse…iniquity will abound….people would turn and practice root working and witchcraft…thinking that this would give them control over their destiny and over other people…I telling you that YOUR cut-off date is right around the corner…
Let me tell you something else!
When it comes to many grotest and blasphemous things demonic people say about you …and about HIM… It’s a good thing God got a “thick skin” …but notice….no matter what they say… it doesn’t change who he is… because in the end…. He’s is still God… and you want to know something else…nothing they say… changes what he’s going to do will do to them in response to what they say as well as what they do…if they refuse to humble themselves, pray, seek his face…and turn from their wicked ways….
And for those of us who’s skin has gotten a little thin…because of the fierce persecutions that come your way …I come by to tell you today this war that we are in ..is Spiritual, Psychological and Physical war…Beloved, think it not strange whwn fiery trials come to try you as if some strange thing has happened to you…
In this warfare of life, a whole lot negative and grotest will be said constantly about you directly and indirectly by the Devil. The devil will unload his arsenal of gross and vile slanderous saying in a machine-gun like fashion in an blatant effort to mess you up so bad in the head that if you don’t ask God to quicken your spirit and thicken your skin, you will knuckle under the pressure and become suicidal because the devil got you convinced that your life ain’t worth the living and make you think that you are better off dead than alive. That’s a lie from the pit of hell…
Because God lives, you can face tomorrow…Because Jesus lives..all of your sorrows can be gone Because he lives you really knows who holds your future … and this life is worth the living just because he lives…
God knows all about our enemies. He knows how they think. He knows what they say behind our backs. He knows every evil plan they have for us. He watches them they as they move under the cloak of darkness in the booth, in the back, down the alley… down-lowing and low-lowing,
The Bible said some of them lay in wait, at night.. always; slipping. sliding, peeping and hiding , plotting and planning, scamming and flim-flaming; always looking for any opportunity to do the devil’s bidding to ambush us and catch us unawares, stealing, killing, drive- by shooting, dope peddling, car-jacking, breaking and entering, prostituting, and numbers running..Yes God know about all of our enemies….But God will make all of your enemies your footstool…God will, if you let him cut off your enemies…and sometimes, if your enemies let him…God will convert your enemies….
Well, the king of Syria, learning that Elisha the prophet told the king of Israel of his plans, sent a detachment of spies to find him so he could take him….the spies left the king and found out that Elisha was living in Dothan, a place that was about 15 miles from Samaria. The bible said the king of Syria sent a great host and they were under orders to bring him back to Syria dead or alive.
Question: Why did this king go to such great length to send 50,000 armed men after one man of God?
One Possibility....
Evidently for some reason, they thought Elisha would be in hiding .. but when you check the record of how Elisha operated. They would soon discover that Elisha was not hard to find…What do you mean preacher…Well….If the king had asked Naaman about Elisha …Naaman would have told him : King, there’s no need to send a whole lot of men because Elisha doesn’t live in any strong-hold, nor does he have any bodyguards with any guards, nor had any such great interest in the people that he needed to fear dealing with drama from a crowd.
Another Possibility...
Maybe he heard when Elijah was still alive, Syria sent 1 captain and 50 men to arrest the man of God but when they got there …fire came down from heaven and consumed the 50 men, so this king decided to send 50,000 men after Elisha and Just that quick he wasn’t thinking because if Elisha could tell the king of Israel about war plans that were hatched from a bed room meeting what makes him think that Elisha would not know that they were coming after him…
The Theory of why a Nation was conquered
Whenever a kingdom was captured and defeated, it was said in theory…the reason it happened was… the god of the captors was stronger than the god of the captive…That theory applied to every nation but the nation of Israel…. Whenever Israel was held captive ….it happened because of their disobedience and God… chose the nation that put Israel in captivity…but whenever Israel fought a war in obedience… they were victorious every time… over all of her enemies… that’s because…it was God …that gave them the victory… and
One other thing… that the king forgot… the warning …that came from Yahweh …. not to his anointed… IT WAS DANGEROUS FOR ANYBODY TO HARM A PROPHET OF GOD
I must sound a warning to everybody who fights against God…against his preachers…his servants that fight against God, his people, his prophet…his program…you don’t… know what you do…..
IN CLOSING:
The Syrian army came by night… and surrounded Dothan, where Elisha lived… Elisha had a young servant …who was an early riser… The bible said…he happened… to be wide awake… when the army came…The bible said… the servant went outside… and when he got outside ….he look around… and he saw…that the whole city …was surrounded …by Syrian horses and chariots…when he saw this he ran straight to Elisha and I heard him say Elisha the whole city is surrounded….what are we going to do?
ELISHA'S RESPONSE:
I heard Elisha say…Don’t be afraid ….for they that are with us are more than they that be with them….Ands at that moment Elisha looked up toward heaven and then he prayed: Lord…I pray to you… that you open his eyes that he may see….the bible said that God opened the young man’s eyes and when he looked up at the mountain he saw another army behind the Syrian army…He saw horses and chariots of fire….ain’t God alright…This is why …we must see life from God’s eyes….Maybe this is why King David said: I will lift my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help my help…my help…my help comes from the Lord
CONCLUSION:
If God be for you….who can really be against you…In order to see your life from God’s eye, you got to open you life to God and let God show you what really is going on….
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