Unseen Realities

Prayer

2 Kings 6-7 - Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Before we dig into the chapters of 2 Kings we’re going to look at this morning, I want to start with an excerpt from CS Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters, which is an fictional book that takes a twist on faith - it’s a series of letters from a higher level demon, Screwtape, written to his nephew, a lower level demon, advising him on how to keep his “patient”, his human, from trusting and following Jesus.

In the very first letter, he advises Wormwood to keep his patient focused on everything he sees around him. Wormwood’s business, Screwtape writes, it to fix his human’s attentive on the immediate stream of sense of experiences and to teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real.”

To not let his patient think about greater truths, about spiritual realities, but only those things around him he can see and feel and hear and smell. That’s real life. What we’re going to see this morning - is that if that’s all we focus our attention on, we’re going to miss the great reality of God, of who he is, his presence and power all around us.

So, we’re back in 2 Kings, and the two main stories here in chapters 6 & 7 that we’re going to look at both take place in the northern kingdom (Israel) and involve the prophet Elisha, as well as the king of Israel, but we don’t know which one as he is never named. As we make our way through the stories I want you to pay attention to themes of seeing (or lack thereof) and hearing (or, again, the lack thereof, not hearing).

So we’re going to start in 2 Kings 6, in the story that takes place in vv. 8-23. And it actually starts with the king of Aram, who is at war with Israel, and is conferring with his officers about attack plans - which towns he’s going to raid, where he’s going to set up his army camps, that sort of thing.

But God is giving Elisha insight into those conversations, as if he is in the room himself. So every time the Arameans make plans, Elisha warns the king of Israel, so they are always prepared to defend against attacks from the Arameans. As you might imagine, this makes the king of Aram quite angry. He wants to know where the leak is coming from.

His officials know where the leak is coming from, and it’s not from any of them - 2 Kings 6:12, “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.” So the king of Aram decides to eliminate his problem - he sends an army to the town of Dothan where Elisha is, in order to capture him.

Here’s what happens next, 2 Kings 6:14-16, 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 no, 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.”

So Elisha and his servant and the whole town of Dothan wake up to an entire army surrounding their city. Things look bad - the servant is in a panic. But Elisha, he’s not worried. He claims that they’re not the ones who outnumbered - it’s the Arameans who are outnumbered. The servant can’t figure out what he’s talking about - the Arameans have an entire army out there.

Then this, 2 Kings 6:17-19, And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that 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. 18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army 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.

So, this amazing turn of events - there are realities happening here that the servant (and everyone else other than Elisha) can’t see. There is an army of God - horses and chariots of fire - surrounding them, ready to fight for them. That’s what Elisha meant when he said there are more with us then there are of them. He prays that his servant might have eyes to see the protection God has given them. And the servant’s eyes are opened and he sees.

Then Elisha prays the opposite for the Aramean army - that they would be blinded. And they are. Then we have this Obi Wan Kenobi moment (Star Wars reference - “these are not the droids you are looking for”) where Elisha tells the army they’re in the wrong place - they took a wrong turn, this is not the road they meant to be on nor is it the city they were trying to reach. And he’s going to helpfully lead them to the right place. So Elisha, the man they were looking for, is the one leading them to the capital city of Samaria.

After the enter the city of Samaria, Elisha prays that their eyes would be opened. And what they see is that they are now trapped inside Samaria, surrounded by the Israelite army. It’s at this point that the king of Israel asks Elisha if he should kill them. But they are essentially prisoners of war, Elisha tells the king he should feed them and let them go back to Aram. Which they do, and the whole episode ends the Aramean raids on Israel’s territory. Reality hits the king of Aram - it’s futile to fight against the God of Israel or his people.

So that’s our first story, it’s a fun story. The second one turns darker, it starts in 2 Kings 6:24 and goes through 2 Kings 7. It involves another siege, this time the king of Aram, Ben Hadad (don’t know if it’s the same king as the first story) has mobilized his entire army and laid siege to Samaria. This is how bad it’s gotten, 2 Kings 6:25, There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.

So that one verse says so much - you have undesirable food, stuff you’d never eat except under the most drastic circumstances - going for exorbitant prices. And it gets worse: a woman cries out to the king of Israel for help, for justice. Of course, the king is at a loss, how can he help? But he asks her what’s wrong? She tells him a horrific situation - she and another woman had agreed to eat their sons. She would give up her son first - which she did, they cooked and ate him. The next day the other woman was to give up her son, but she had hidden him. That’s her complaint.

The king tears his robes in grief. He decides that Elisha is to blame and he plans to kill him. So he sends a messenger to Elisha with this message, vs. 33, The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” In other words, the king of Israel has given up hope in the Lord. Why wait, he’s not going to help us, the Lord is working against us.

2 Kings 7:1, Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria. The Lord is telling them that within twenty-four hours, everything will change - good food will not only be available, but be plentiful.

One of the king’s officers refuses to hear this word, he can’t believe it - there’s no way. And because he doubts God’s word, 2 Kings 7:2, “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!” You’ll see it, but you won’t get to enjoy the good God is going to do.

The story then shifts to four lepers who are just outside the city, at the entrance of the city gate. They are pondering their situation - they realize that if they go inside the city, there’s nothing for them there, they’ll die. But if they go to the camp of the Arameans and surrender - well, maybe they’ll die, but maybe the Arameans will have mercy and they’ll live. So early the next morning they make their way to the Aramean camp.

To their great surprise, there’s no one at the camp - and here’s why, 2 Kings 7:6-7, ...for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they go up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

The Lord creates a sensation where the Arameans think they are about to be attacked by two big armies from opposite sides - Hittites from the north and the Egyptians from the south. So they hightail it out of there. And the lepers have an entire army’s camp of supplies to enjoy - food and drink and treasure. And they do, taking much of the treasure and hiding it away.

But then they remember there’s a whole city starving behind those city walls and decide they can’t keep this good news to themselves. So they return to the city and share the news. The king of Israel is suspicious, thinking the Arameans are setting a trap. But after sending out scouts who only find discarded clothing and equipment along the road back to Aram, he lets the people go plunder the camp.

So story ends, 2 Kings 7:16-17, Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said. And then this, Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate (this is the officer who doubted Elisha’s prophecy), and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. So the guy who doubted the word of the Lord gets trampled by the horde of people frantic to get food.

Recognizing (and being captivated by) the reality of God

So as we turn to think about this and what it means for us, I want to bring in something I talked about in worship the other Sunday when we were talking about our Vision Framework, and in particular, our measures, those things that answer the question of how we will know that we have achieved the vision we believe God has given us as a church. One of those measures was having “a mind captivated by the reality of God and his kingdom” (repeat).

In these stories it is Elisha - and only Elisha - who truly sees the reality of God and his kingdom. In all these terrible situations - literally, two sieges by Arameans, first of the city of Dothan, where Elisha and his servant are, then later the long extended siege of Samaria and the starvation that was taking place as a result - it is only Elisha who is not afraid because he sees what no one else does - the reality of the Lord God.

Exactly what the stories draw our attention to. In the siege of Dothan, it is Elisha’s servant who immediately panics when they see Aramean army surrounding the city. But that’s all he sees. He does not have the eyes to see that God’s protective hand is with them, his chariots and horses of fire surrounding him and Elisha - that indeed there are more with us than there are with them. That Aramean army, they have no idea what they are up against.

Story is so fun when it plays on the idea of sight, Elisha praying that his servant would have his eyes open to see the reality of God with them - and then praying that the Arameans would be blinded, so that he could lead them miles away to the capital and take them captive.

Second siege is far more dire, women who start eating their very own children in order to try to survive, unimaginable horrors. The king of Israel is blind with despair, he’s lashing out in anger against Elisha and even worse, the Lord God of Israel. Even when Elisha declares the word of the Lord to them, they can’t receive it, they can’t hear the truth of it. The official immediately responds that it could never happen - because he can’t even begin to factor in the reality of the power of the Lord being promised to them. All he can see is what’s right in front of them - a starving city surrounded by a far superior army. Who God is never comes into the equation.

Remember the Lord’s response to him through Elisha - you will see it happen, you’ll see the reality of the power and grace of God, but you won’t get to experience it because of your lack of faith.

And in this story, instead of blinding the Arameans, the Lord tricks them by causing them to hear what isn’t true, that two massive armies are coming against them. They are so convinced of it the entire army flees in terror, abandoning everything. Run for your lives level panic. They are responding to what their senses are telling them is true, but really isn’t.

The invitation of these stories is to live by what is true. What is real. Here’s the thing - what’s real, what is most real, is God, his reign. The Lord is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the source of it all, the power that made it, sustains it, reigns over it. He is the great reality. And if we miss him, his presence, his power, his truth, we miss what is most real. If we only see what’s in front of us, we miss the unseen reality of God and his kingdom.

And this is exactly what Jesus came to do, to help us become aware of the reality of God and his kingdom. That’s what he preached, all the time - the kingdom of God is near, it’s right here, repent and believe. And like so many today, people couldn’t see it. They didn’t have the eyes to see, ears to hear the truth Jesus was proclaiming.

Not for a lack of effort on Jesus’ part - it’s why he performed so many miracles, healing diseases and freeing people bound by demons - as a way to say, here’s the kingdom of God. His power, his goodness, his healing, is right here, available to you. The reality of God right in your midst. Why Jesus taught - the crowds, his disciples, over and over again. Using parables that so often began, The kingdom of God is like...is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Or like yeast that a woman mixed into her dough. Like a treasure hidden in a field. Jesus was giving them images, these stories as a way of helping them - and us, see the reality of God and his kingdom.

Jesus lived that reality. We touched on this some last week. Like Elisha, he had eyes to see it. It’s why he could look at the birds of the air and flowers of the field and know that he did not have to worry. Because of the reality of our heavenly Father who watches over them - and who watches over us. Who knows what we need. To whom we are more valuable than those birds and those flowers - and if the Father provides so wonderfully for them, then surely he will provide for us. Because of the reality of God and his kingdom, I don’t have to worry or to live in fear.

To grow in faith is to grow in having minds that are captivated by the reality of God and his kingdom. To see the reign of God right here and now, available to us. Available to anyone. To know that in spite of the worst of circumstances that we may face in life, that Jesus truly is Lord - of all. Which is to say, that he has the ultimate say-so, over everything. And because he is with us, we always have more with us than anything we face in life - a relationship that seems irreconcilable, dire financial situation, unbearable loss, overwhelming work or family obligations.

To trust in the reality of God and his kingdom, to have eyes to see it, is to trust that God can and will bring good out of any situation - and then to recognize the good when it happens. It is to see the world as God-filled, his presence and glory everywhere. And like Elisha, that we would live in that confidence.

Spiritual Disciplines - Grow minds that are captivated by the reality of God and his kingdom

Discipline of Solitude - to move away from distractions in order to be alone with God, to be attentive to God, to his reality, his presence, to seek his face, to hear his voice, to know him. I can’t stress how vital this is, especially in today’s world, where distractions abound, we’re tethered to our phones. We need to disconnect from everything else in order to connect to Jesus, to be with him. Make this a daily priority. A have-to. Start small if need be, but start.

Whole earth is filled with the glory of God - practice seeing this world as a God-filled world (rather than one in which he seems absent). Practice seeing God’s glory all around you. Be attentive to big and little things, ordinary things of creation, wonder at them, praise the Lord for them. See the Lord in others, as those created in his image. Give thanks for them. As you experience beauty, goodness, truth - these are all of the Lord, praise him as you do.

Closing Prayer - time of reflection