Title: Eyes of Faith See God at Work
Introduction:
One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters."[1]
When you think of our relationship to our Father God, it becomes clear that our faith provides the sight needed to follow Him in this life. No matter the flames that scorch our skin, the smoke that brings tears to our eyes, or the blackness of confusion – faith is the key to conquering the circumstances that would otherwise destroy you.
We will look at an incident in the life of Elisha and his servant for a wonderful lesson in real faith. A faith that sees God as clearly as the person next to you.
Scripture: 2 Kings 6-7
Main Point:
Seeing life circumstances with faith in God is a crucial choice that enables you to be a conqueror in life rather than be conquered by life.
Outline:
1. Faith is a crucial choice for every person.
2. Faith is choosing to see our invisible God at work.
3. Faith will change you into a merciful conqueror like God.
1. Faith is a crucial choice for every person.
8 Now the king of Aram was at war with
Israel.
After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in
such and such a place."
9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of
passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there." 10
So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God.
Time
and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such
places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers
and
demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of
the
king of Israel?"
12 "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." (2 Kings 6:8-12, NIV)
Elisha may have been one of the early members of the IDF – Israel
Defense
Forces! The IDF has one of the best intelligence agencies in the
world.
Elisha showed he had what it took to be a part of the IDF ;-)
The enemy in this case was the King of Aram (modern day Syria). The people were nomadic, traveling from place to place, raiding different areas to acquire wealth. The Golan Heights was a key entry point into Israel.
King of Aram planned to attack Israel but his plans were being foiled.
10 … Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places. 11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?" (2 Kings 6:10-11, NIV)
Israel’s king seemed to know his every move. Obviously, there was an intelligence leak among the Arameans. The Aramean king began to suspect his own people. Then, one of his officers blamed the whole mess on Elisha.
12 "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." (2 Kings 6:12, NIV)
Q: How did this officer know that the prophet Elisha was the culprit?
- We do not know for certain from this account.
- Possibly he was blaming someone totally outside Aram to redirect suspicion from himself.
- Possibly this officer was a man of faith himself
Nevertheless, the officer got it partly right – it was God providing this intelligence to/through the prophet Elisha.
Q: Why was God thwarting the plans of Aram to attack Israel? Remember, the northern kingdom of Israel had no good kings…
First, there is the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendents:
1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave
your
country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I
will show
you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3, NIV)
So God made a promise to “bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse” (v3). God was faithful to keep this promise toward Israel’s enemies in spite of her disobedience as a nation. There was a limit to His patience – this account of Elisha occurred about 130 years before the northern kingdom was overrun by Assyria.
Second, God was teaching (or trying to teach) the King of Israel to have faith in God. Each of us has a choice to trust in God for direction or trust in our own resources. The Bible explains very clearly what happens when you and I trust in our own ways of thinking:
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25, NIV)
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6, NIV)
19 … Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:19-23, NIV)
It is a crucial choice you must make to see life from the faith point of view.
Jesus did not say, “Follow Me!” (Matthew 4:19, 8:22, 9:9) without also saying, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12, NIV). He will lead us through difficult, confusing circumstances if we have faith.
Trust in Him when your child is sick, your job is lost, or danger lurks. He not only is the “Light of the world” but He is the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:11, NIV).
2. Faith is choosing to see our invisible God at work.
13 "Go, find out where he is," the king
ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back:
"He is in Dothan." 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and
a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out
early the
next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.
"Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
16 "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those
who are with us are more than those who are with them."
17 And Elisha prayed, "O LORD , open his eyes so 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. (2 Kings
6:13-17,
NIV)
An angry King of Aram decided to strike back at Elisha. His was a choice not to have faith but to have folly. He chose to try and destroy a man of God.
Look at the irony of this situation – He could not get to the King of Israel because Elisha knew his every move in advance. So how is he now going to get Elisha himself?
That is the problem with choosing to walk by folly instead of faith – you make some really bad decisions that defy logic.
Mencken said: “Immortality is the condition of a dead man who doesn't believe he is dead.”[2] However the believer is not dead but truly alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4). And so, as long as we walk by faith we are immortal until God fulfills His purpose for us on this Earth.
Stay on the path of faith to live out the fullness of life that God has designed for you (Ephesians 2:10). Through fear and sin, we can easily cut short our lives (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). So choose to walk by faith and not fear. Then:
- Until it is God’s time for you – you are immortal.
- When it is God’s time for you – all the money and power in the world are useless to prevent you from going home to be with Jesus.
So the Aramean army surrounded Dothan where Elisha was staying. Apparently Aram had a decent intelligence network also. They came with “an army with horses and chariots” (v15). This was a powerful force in those days.
Elisha had a servant with him. Since his previous servant, Gehazi, had left with his punishment of leprosy, Elisha’s new servant did not know all of Elisha’s ways or his faith.
The servant saw a vast army against them and feared: “Oh my lord, what shall we do?” (v15). That is the wrong question to ask when you are in a dangerous situation. Through fear you will surely make a bad decision.
Elisha was a man of faith who “saw” God’s army that was for them and so remained calm. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (v16).
Q: If you were Elisha’s servant, what would you say to that?
- I would probably have said something like “yeah, right! The army of Aram is real. Those clubs and swords – they are real! Those arrows that pierce the heart – they are real! How can you say “don’t be afraid”?
- It is easy to say “don’t be afraid” but hard to put into practical use.
Through the eyes of faith, Elisha saw another army just as real as the one with clubs and swords! After praying for the servant, “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” (v17). What a tremendous vision God gave the servant to see the reality of His angels there to protect Elisha, the man of faith. The Bible says:
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who
fear Him,
and He delivers them. (Psalm 34:7).
There is a choice you must make in desperate circumstances:
- Despair over what you cannot do – “Oh my lord, what shall we do?”
- Depend upon what God can do – “Those who are with us…”
God can do anything and everything that is needed. Faith is choosing to see our invisible God at work.
The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see, and with faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that only fear allows to entrap us. [3]
3. Faith will change you into a merciful conqueror like God.
18 As the enemy came down toward him,
Elisha
prayed to the LORD , "Strike these people with blindness." So he
struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19 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.
20 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.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall
I
kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?"
22 "Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill
men 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." 23
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 6:18-23, NIV)
When was the last time you prayed like Elisha? He received immediate results for his prayers. That’s the kind of person I would like to have writing down my prayer requests in his daily prayer log.
Elisha prayed that God would blind them – not to hurt them but to show them the power of God. The Arameans needed to know the one true God had, without a doubt, the power to save.
The King of Israel wanted to kill the Aramean soldiers. Twice he asked: “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?” (v21). Oh he was the best of buddies with Elisha when Elisha brought the Aramean army right into his hands. He even calls Elisha “father” (v21). Once again, Elisha sets about to teach both the Arameans and the King of Israel about faith.
Q: Were the Aramean soldiers “enemy combatants” or “prisoners-of-war”?
- They were part of a standing army of Aram, sent by the King on a mission to take Elisha – quite different from terrorists.
- They were prisoners-of-war – but not Israel’s. These POW’s were God’s POW’s. God captured them and decided how to treat them.
Q: How would you describe God’s treatment of His POW’s?
- Merciful.
There are times for justice and punishment. In the book of Joshua, we see God’s direction to Israel to eradicate the Canaanites totally. Yet even then, some were shown mercy such as Rahab and her family.
14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. (Romans 9:14-16, NIV)
Perhaps there were some believers in the Aramean army. In any event, God had plans for them to “go back to their master” (v22).
- God had in mind for them what He has in mind for us: Go and tell of God’s power and compassion to this generation.
- Surely the Arameans did this – astonished at the merciful treatment by the prophet of the God of Israel.
“So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory” (2 Kings 6:23, NIV). The raids on Israel stopped (for a while) because of the testimony of the Aramean prisoners.
This could be your mighty testimony to others of the power of God – when He uses your faith to change you to be like Him. To show mercy instead of vengeance reveals a faith that is worth something.
British statesman Edmund Burke said: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” [4]
If your faith in God does not change you to be like God in terms of your compassion for people and spiritual power to make a difference, then it is time to trade in your kind of faith for the real thing.
Real faith will turn you into a conqueror of this life, no matter the circumstances. As the Bible says:
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced [I HAVE FAITH] that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39, NIV)
That is real faith that will change you forever into a man or woman of God.
Conclusion:
It was that great Christian statesman and orator Daniel Webster who said: “Faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”[5]
Seeing life circumstances through the eyes of faith enables us to be conquerors and get through whatever life dishes out. Rather than be conquered, rather than give way to fear, or even give up, we cling to the certainty of God’s reality, love, and power to save.
It is crucial choice to “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV). What will be your choice?
© Copyright 2004, Randy Lariscy.