This Is How I Fight My Battles

2018 ABC

2 Kings 6:8-17

This is How I Fight My Battles: Open My Eyes

Michael W. Smith has a very simple, repetitious, but impactful song out today that goes something like this:

“This is how I fight my battles (4x) It may look like I’m surrounded, but I’m surrounded by you (2x)”

And the passage of Scripture that I thought of when I heard this song was this passage here in 2 Kings.

We have the King of Syria (Ben-Hadad I or his boy Ben-Hadad II) wanting to pick a fight with Israel and their king, King Jehoram. Ben-Hadad was probably sending in raiding parties into Israel territory. But he was having a big problem…

Ben-Hadad was making all these plans and strategies with his men, and the man of God, Elisha was reading Ben’s mail; he was getting Ben-Hadad’s plans through God. God was giving Elisha revelation as to what the enemy was up to. There was no secret kept from God.

We know something about God: There is no plan that the enemy can make that God does not know about… and God will give revelation and wisdom to his people. He has, and He continues to do so.

God knows what’s going on, and He knows how to fight your battles. He knows the enemy’s strategy. God knows his plans.

So, this was giving Ben a migraine headache in this endeavor, and he began to ask and inquire: “Who is the traitor among us! Who is this guy? I am going to rip him apart… Who is for Israel? What’s his name? What’s his address, phone number?”

I am not sure how the bad guys knew about Elisha, but listen to their reply: Verse 12 – “None of us… but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel… He tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom…” Can you imagine what shade of red Ben turned…?

“Where is he? What’s the address...?” “Dothan, they replied.” And so they take off for Dothan, not Dothan, Alabama, but this was the area where Joseph was thrown into the well and then sold into slavery by his brothers. Dothan means “two wells.” It is located on the south side of the plain of Jezreel.

You know the Jezreel Valley… and all the events that have taken place there: Battles in the book of Judges and Elijah on Mt. Carmel over looking the valley, and we also understand that in the book of Revelation that this area The Valley of Megiddo is also called the Valley of Jezreel.

Well, Ben is not waiting until Revelation to be written… he prepares horses, chariots and a great army and they set out after the man of God. And when morning came, the place was surrounded… “What shall we do,” the servant says to Elisha. And Elisha says something very puzzling to the servant’s ears:

“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…”

See what? Open my eyes to see what? The reality is right before my eyes! We are surrounded!

Can’t we all understand what the servant must have been feeling/experiencing at this moment?

When all we can see is the enemy… when all we can see is the trouble… when all we can see is that the numbers are against us… when all we can see, only what these human eyes can see… we are left with fear, anxiety, worry and dismay.

I am surrounded! We are surrounded! We are outnumbered, and the odds are against us!

The fear is coming from: I can’t do this. I am not strong enough. I cannot handle this. This is beyond me.

What did he need and what do we need? We need to submit to God and cry out, “Lord, open the eyes to see what’s really real… Open my eyes to see the truth. Open my eyes to see You!”

We need our eyes to be opened to the reality of who our God is and just how many are on our side in our time in the valley.

And the servant looked up and saw the spiritual reality: And what did he see?

And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha…

What a sight. What a vision. To see the heavenly hosts of God fighting our battles. We don’t see this sight all throughout Scripture, but they were there: Joshua 5:13-15 – The Commander of the Lord’s army has a conversation with Joshua. In the book of Judges, with every battle, with Gideon and his few defeating multitudes that could not be numbered. With Samuel and David… the armies of God have always been there.

In this very place where Joseph was surrounded by his brothers and his eyes saw his death. When Elijah was in this very area surrounded by false prophets and Ahab’s men… When Hezekiah was surrounded by the Assyrians in 2 Chronicles 32… What has been the reality of God’s people’s situation?

They have always bee the smallest, the least, and the weakest. But they have always had a great God Who is greater than all.

What have they seen and concluded over and over again?

This reality:“When it looks like I’m surrounded, I’m still surrounded by God.”

Ephesians 6:12 says that we fight against spiritual beings, powers of darkness, hosts of wickedness… Daniel 10 shows us that these spiritual beings are behind the scenes leading rulers and nations. The Bible is clear about this.

These forces will use human beings, nations, countries and empires...

The Bible is also clear that God will fight our battles… that God fights our battles... using His heavenly hosts…

It is the same area where troubles have taken place. It is the same place, with different people and different situations…

But it was the same God that was there and delivered…

We are here… in this area, in this world, in our context… where many battles have been fought before us and during our days as well.

The ones before us were surrounded by trouble and battles, and we have encountered the similar… But what has been true for God’s people then is true today: We may be surrounded by enemies, but we are still surrounded by the hands, by the arms, by the love of Almighty God.

(Read some Psalms. Draw some pictures.)

Psalm 37:12-17- The wicked plot, draw the sword, bend their bow… The Lord laughs, and breaks the arms and the bows… The Lord upholds the righteous...

Psalms 57:4 - I am surrounded by enemies… Show your greatness, O God.

Psalm 91:7-16 - A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand… but it shall not come near to you… Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place… No evil shall befall you...

The Lord will fight and the Lord will win. And we will win with Him.

The problem we have today is living in the reality in between the past and the future. Our problem is living in the present, with faith to see these spiritual realities that exist before us as we live our lives with Christ.

I want to see these spiritual realities through the eyes of faith. I say, “I believe, but oh Lord help my unbelief… and give me the eyes to see… open my eyes to see that…

As you live, do you feel surrounded by adversity? Do you feel surrounded? Do you feel as though you are outnumbered, that you have lost, and that you should just give up and quit?

Lord, open our eyes that we may see the truth. You surround us. Your arms are around us. Your hands are around us. You are our refuge. You are our fortress. You are our shelter. You are our strength...

God, you are!

“When it looks like I’m surrounded, I’m surrounded by you…”

Through the eyes of faith… do you see Him today?

Lord, give us eyes to see...

This is how we must fight our battles.