01 Dec Can you see what the eye cannot see?

2 Kings 6:8-23

2 Kings 6:15-19 – ¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶ He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So 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. ¹⁸ And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. ¹⁹ And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria.

Has anyone ever encountered an angel? As far as I can tell, I never have an encounter with an actual angel. Let me change the question. Do you believe in angels? Just a few decades ago, our society was obsessed with angels. There was a TV show called “Touched by an angel.” Many of you weren’t even born when the show was on air. The show was about three angels who walked around and touched the lives of different people, people who struggled and tried to do their best in life but never made it. Then at one specific moment, they received help or touch by these angels. And when they realized that these three girls were angels, the angels suddenly disappeared from sight. So, one moment the angels were next to them, then when they turned around there was no one next to them. Is the show Biblical? I’m not too sure. But I know for sure that angels do exist, and they exist to serve God and God’s people. How I can be sure? Because the Bible tells us so. We might not be able to see them, but they are always around us to serve us. Our passage for today is one of the many stories in the Bible that shows us that angels are always at work around us to minister to us.

Tonight, we are on the sixth sermon of our series on the life of Elijah and Elisha titled, “Living by faith.” Both Elijah’s and Elisha’s lives show us what it means to live by faith among faithless people. Tonight’s passage is very interesting. It is about seeing what the eye cannot see. It’s about having spiritual sight. And in my sermon preparation, I am both excited and nervous about preaching this passage. I am excited because if you get what the passage is teaching us, no matter what may come, no matter what you may experience, you will be okay. Here is what this passage is showing us. No one is as safe as God’s people even when they live in the most fearful times. It doesn’t matter if the whole world is against them, God’s people are always safe and secure under God’s protection. It’s beautiful. At the same time, I am very nervous because there is nothing I can do to make you see what the eye cannot see. You either see or you do not see. You either have sight or you are blind. And if you are blind, you cannot see. How do you know that you can see? You know you can see because you see. Seeing is self-evident. And here is the hard truth that the Bible teaches us. As we are about to see in this text, only God can open eyes and make anyone see. No preacher can do that. No holy man can do that. To open the eye to see what cannot be seen can only be done by God who looked at darkness and said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. So, before we get into the passage, why don’t we say this short prayer together first? “God, open my eyes to see what I cannot see.”

I have three points for my sermon: the unknown; the unseen; the unexpected.

The unknown

2 Kings 6:8-14 – ⁸ Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” ⁹ But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.” ¹⁰ And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice. ¹¹ And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” ¹² And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” ¹³ And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” ¹⁴ So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

“Who is the mole among us?” the king of Syria is asking. Every time he comes up with a plan to attack Israel, the plan never works. Israel always finds out about Syria’s plan somehow. If it only happens once, then it could be a coincidence. But it happens again and again and again. When it happens regularly, you can’t help but become suspicious. So, the king of Syria says to his servants, “There must be a mole, a traitor, a spy among us who is leaking our military information to Israel. Who is it? Which one of you is the secret agent?” One of his servants replies, “There is no spy among us O king. That’s not our problem. Our problem is a prophet by the name of Elisha. We don’t know how, but he seems to know every word that you speak in your bedroom. And he tells everything you say to the king of Israel.” This is amazing. How does Elisha know all the words that the king says in his bedroom? Today we might say, “Elisha must have installed a listening bug in the king’s room. Or he put a hidden CCTV somewhere.” But there were no listening devices or CCTV in those days. Do you know how Elisha knows? This is what Daniel said of God in Daniel 2:22 – he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. There are no such things as secrets before God. God knows all things and he frustrates the plan of his enemies again and again. That’s what’s happening in our text. All the plans, tricks, and strategies of the king of Syria are not working because God reveals them to Elisha. Elisha is God’s secret agent.

So, the king sends a great army to capture Elisha in Dothan. This is weird. Why would you send a great army just to capture a single person? The king of Syria knows that Elisha is his biggest obstacle in crushing Israel. He is thinking, “If only I can kill Elisha, if only I can get rid of this prophet who keeps hindering our plans, we can defeat Israel. If only I can get rid of Elisha, victory is mine.” But do you realise there is something ironic about the king’s plan? If Elisha knows and hears everything the king says in his bedroom, won’t Elisha know of this plan to capture him? Won’t Elisha have a countermeasure prepared already? But the king is determined to get rid of Elisha whatever the cost. He sees Elisha as the biggest threat to his kingdom. God’s enemy will stop at nothing to harm God’s people.

So, what can learn from the story so far? Here it is. There is no such thing as unknown for God. He knows all things and he frustrates the plans of the enemies for the good of his people. Let me give you one other example from the Bible: Haman and Mordechai. Haman hated Mordechai and he came up with clever schemes to get rid of Mordechai and all the Jews. He used his connection to King Xerxes to accomplish his evil plan. And he prepared gallows by which to hang Mordechai. Haman thought his plan was flawless, only for God to frustrate his plan. God revealed Haman’s wicked plan and God protected Mordechai. Haman ended up being the one who was hanged on his own gallows. Do you see? It does not mean that God will always protect us from harm. That’s not the testimony of the Bible. There are many times when God does not intervene when we are being crushed by our enemies. But it does mean that no one can touch or harm God’s people unless God allows it. God is always working for the good of his people. Wherever it seems like God’s enemies have the upper hand, God always has a way of frustrating their plans and defending his people. Let’s continue with the story.

The unseen

2 Kings 6:15-17 – ¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶ He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So 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.

Now the scene moves to Dothan. When Elisha’s servant gets up in the morning and goes outside, he is shocked by what he sees. They are surrounded by an army with horses and chariots all around the city. So, he runs back inside and says, “Omo, omo, omo. Master, we are doomed. We are surrounded by enemies. What shall we do?” He is petrified by the enemy numbers. It seems like the enemy is invincible. But look at Elisha. He is not afraid at all. He says, “Chill boy. Relax. Don’t be afraid. There are more than what meets the eye. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” In other words, Elisha is saying, “You do not get the number right. You missed count. We have more soldiers on our side than them. They do not have us outnumbered. We’ve got them outnumbered.” The servant must be so confused right now. He looks around and he sees no one but him and Elisha. “Err Master? I know you are a prophet of God but… I can see that you are getting old. Maybe it’s time for you to get a new prescription for your glasses. I don’t see anyone but the two of us. And last time I checked, 10,000 is a lot more than 2.” Elisha probably smiles at him, then he prays, “O Lord, would you open his eyes that he may see.” And God opens the servant’s eyes, and behold, behind the Syrian army, there is another greater army ready to attack the Syrian army. Behind the town, the mountain is full of horses and chariots of fire ready to protect Elisha at any given moment. What a sight to behold. It is one thing to hear, “Do not be afraid,” and it is another thing to see and be amazed by the number of angels around them. It is one thing to hear, it is another to see. The servant learns a valuable lesson that day. One with God is far more than a mighty army. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Some of you are thinking right now, “Okay Yos, but this story is from the Old Testament. This might happen to Elisha ages ago, but it doesn’t happen anymore today. We live in a different time and age now.” Let me share with you a story of a missionary by the name of John G Patton. Sometime during the early 1900s, John and his wife found themselves surrounded by a tribe of cannibals who wanted to eat them alive. So that night John and his wife did the only thing they could do. They got on their knees and prayed that God would supernaturally protect them. As they prayed, they could hear the noises and the hisses of those cannibals making their way toward the house. But then something strange happened. The door was never opened. Minutes went by. Hours went by. And finally, the sun rose, and the morning came. All the natives were retreating back into the forest. A miracle happened. John and his wife praised God and continued to do their missionary work faithfully. About a year later, the chief of the tribe that wanted to eat them accepted Christ. As John spoke with him, he remembered the event that happened that night. So, John asked, “What happened that night? Why didn’t you guys get in and kill me?” And the chief asked him, “Who were all those men who were with you?” John was confused and he replied, “What men? There was no one else there but me and my wife. It was just the two of us inside the house.” The chief replied, “That’s not true. There were hundreds of tall men in shining garments with drawn swords circling about your house, so we could not attack you.” Do you see? And John’s story is not a one-off story. This kind of story happens regularly in the mission field. One with God is far more than a mighty army.

Let me apply it to our daily life. Do you know why we live in fear? Do you know why we are afraid? Because we feel outnumbered. We are afraid because we think we are surrounded by the vast numbers of enemies and there is nothing we can do against them. We fear because we don’t see rightly. We only see what we can see with our physical eyes. We don’t see the unseen reality. Because if we can see the unseen reality, we have no reason to be afraid. When I was young, I was told that I do not have to be afraid because God has a guardian angel watching over me. That guardian angel watches over me when I sleep, when I eat, when I play, when I fight etc. It’s cute and heartwarming. But it is wrong. Because the Bible does not tell us that we have a guardian angel watching over us. What we have is far much better. We not only have a guardian angel watching over us, but we have an army of angels guarding us at all times. Whether we can see them or not, they are there. So, when we are afraid, when we are fearful, what we need to do is ask God to show us a glimpse of the horses and chariots of fire around us.

In other words, listen. Oftentimes, the reason we are afraid is not that we don’t know, but we don’t see. What we need is not spiritual knowledge but spiritual sight. Elisha’s servant would have known a lot about God. Elisha must have taught him all the right theology and doctrine. He knew that one with God was far more than a mighty army, but he didn’t see it. He knew it with his head, but it didn’t affect his heart. It didn’t affect the way he lived. But when he finally sees, what was just an abstraction grips his heart, and it changes him. This is how Timothy Keller defines spiritual sight. “Spiritual sight means ideas that were either silly to you or just abstract to you become so compelling and so amazing and so thrilling and so real to you that they change you permanently.”

Imagine if you are married to a man who is colour-blind. And then there is a new technology that can restore his ability to perceive colour. Eventually, your husband must say to you, “All this time I didn’t know how beautiful the world is. Why didn’t you tell me how stunning it is to watch the orange rays of the sun as it sets over the ocean? Why didn’t you tell me how beautiful you look when you wear that purple dress? Why didn’t you help me understand?” And you would say, “I tried, but until your eyes were opened you simply could not see. You could not understand. I tried to describe red, purple, and orange, but you could not appreciate them until you could see them.” It’s like me after I had a LASIK surgery. Before LASIK, my eyesight was really bad. I could not see at all without my glasses. Everything was a blur to me. But after I had LASIK, I really wanted to sing with Aladdin and Jasmine, “A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view.” Can you see what it means to have spiritual sight? It means what we believe about God is no longer an abstract but a gripping reality. I know a lot of Christians who believe in God’s protection over them, but they live their everyday life in constant fear. They believe that God cares for them, but they are always afraid of what might happen tomorrow. They know that God loves them, but they keep feeling insecure about what other people might say and think about them. Why? Because they know it in the abstract, but they don’t see it. Because if they see it, it will change them. But here is the thing about spiritual sight. Spiritual sight is a gift of God. We can’t make ourselves see. Only God can. That’s why Elisha prays for God to open the eyes of his servant.

So, let me give you the rule of thumb on how to know whether you have spiritual sight or not. I know it sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. Listen. The way you know you are spiritually blind is you don’t think you are blind. The way to know you are beginning to see is you think you are blind. Martyn Lloyd Jones used to say that one of the ways you know that your eyes have been opened to the gospel is that you can’t get enough of the gospel. The more you know about the gospel, the more it feels like you are just beginning to understand the gospel. All you want to do is listen to the gospel. You are fascinated by the gospel. That’s why one of the signs of those who are getting spiritual sight is they read the Bible or listen to a sermon, and they say, “I’ve read this before. I’ve heard this before. But now it’s like the Bible has come alive. It’s like there is light on every page. I can see the beauty of Jesus in every sermon, and I can’t wait to hear more. What was so boring before now is just so wonderful.” That’s a spiritual sight. On the other hand, you are spiritually blind if you think you already have it all together. You think you already know the gospel and you are bored by it. You want something more than the gospel. That’s a sign of spiritual blindness. Be careful.

Let’s stop here for a bit because I don’t want us to misinterpret the Bible. So far in our passage, we have seen how God reveals the unknown hidden agenda of the enemies for the good of his people. God also has horses and chariots of fire always protecting his people. It’s easy then for us to think that if we have faith in God, then everything will go smoothly in life. Why would it not? We have an army of angels who protect us from all harm at all times. But that’s not what the Bible is teaching us. What does the Bible teach us then? Get this. God is always for his people even when it doesn’t seem like he is for his people. Remember that this story happens in Dothan. There is another story that happened in Dothan many centuries before this story. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers in Dothan. I’m sure Joseph cried out to God for help, but he was sold into slavery anyway. There were no chariots of fire who came to his rescue. No army of angels protected him. The chariots came for Elisha, but they did not come for Joseph. What happened?

To our physical sight, it may seem like God has abandoned Joseph. But that’s not true because the Bible keeps saying, “But the Lord was with Joseph.” In other words, the chariots of fire were always around Joseph. They were working for Joseph in a way that he could not perceive. If the army of angels immediately delivered Joseph from harm, if Joseph had not gone through years of suffering, he would never have accomplished what God had set for him. He would remain a spoiled brat, and he never would have saved many people from famine. Do you see? The chariots of fire were always around Joseph. The chariots of fire are always around us. Even when we go through seasons of pain and suffering, even when it feels like God has forsaken us, God is always working for us. As Christians, we are not exempted from evils and pains, but we have absolute total confidence that everything happens under the control of the good and sovereign God. Every bad thing that happens only leads to something more glorious and beautiful in the end. In other words, listen. God’s absolute protection does not remove evil from our lives but sustains us through evil to accomplish his good and greater purposes.

The unexpected

2 Kings 6:18-20 – ¹⁸ And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. ¹⁹ And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria. ²⁰ As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

Now Elisha is just having a little fun with the Syrians. If before he prays for God to open the eyes of his servant, now he prays for God to blind the eyes of the Syrians. And God strikes them with blindness. I don’t think the blindness here refers to the inability to see anything. It is more likely some sort of visual confusion that causes them not to be able to see where they are or what is going on. How do I know? Because then Elisha tells the Syrian army to follow him to Samaria, which is about 18 km from Dothan. Imagine if the Syrian soldiers can’t see anything. How does Elisha lead armies of thousands to travel 18 km? That’s not possible. If they are totally blind, they won’t be able to follow him to Samaria. But they do. And once they get to Samaria, Elisha prays again, “God open their eyes that they may see.” So, God opens their eyes. And when they open their eyes, voila, they are in Samaria. They must be very confused. One moment they are in Dothan about to capture Elisha, and now they are in the enemy’s territory surrounded by the enemy’s armies. Look at what happens next.

2 Kings 6:21-23 – ²¹ As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?” ²² He answered, “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” ²³ So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.

As soon as the king sees the Syrian army, he is ready for a bloodbath. He is so excited to kill them that he asks Elisha twice. “Can I kill them now? Can I kill them now?” He is like a child with a new toy. “Can I open it now? Can I open it now?” But instead of a bloodbath, Elisha wants something totally different. He says, “No, you may not kill them. You did not capture them with your sword and bow. It is God who captured them. Now, prepare a banquet for them.” When I read it, I was like, “Wait. What? This does not make any sense. Are you serious? What kind of king prepares a banquet for his enemy’s army? That’s not supposed to happen. The right to do is slaughter them and weaken the enemy’s strength. Not spare them and have a feast with them.” But that’s what Elisha commands the king of Israel to do. And imagine how the Syrian soldiers must be thinking. They had fallen into the hands of God’s prophet and the king of Israel. I’m sure think they are going to die. But instead, their lives are spared by their enemy, and they are given a feast. Who would have guessed? It’s not supposed to happen. So, not only God protected Elisha from the enemy’s harm, but God also protected the Syrians by restraining Israel’s king. And because of it, these Syrian soldiers never come back on raids into Israel. Why would they ever come back? They experienced grace and it changed them. This is a shadow of the gospel.

Do you know this is what God did to us if we are Christians? We were God’s enemy. But instead of slaughtering us, God came to us with mercy and showed us grace. While we were still sinners, God died for us, and he reconciled us to himself. We are saved not because we deserve it but by God’s kindness alone. And if we get this, it changes how we see the non-Christians around us. Listen. As Christians, we can respect non-Christians in a way nobody else can because we know we are Christians not because we are better people but because of God’s grace alone. We can love and embrace people with whom we strongly disagree. Why? Because we are not better than them. The only reason we love God is because God opened our eyes to see. We did not deserve God’s mercy. We deserve God’s sword. We deserve to be killed. But if we can see, it’s because the Holy Spirit opened our eyes to see. We have absolutely no reason to boast and despise others who can’t see what we see. A prideful Christian is a spiritually blind Christian. They might know they are saved by grace, but they do not taste the sweetness of grace. But if we have tasted the sweetness of God’s grace, we can extend the same grace to our enemies. Rather than seek revenge, we can love our enemies because that’s the way God has treated us.

But this is the ultimate question you have to answer. Are the chariots of fire working for you, or against you? Because if the chariots of fire are working for you, then you are safe and secure in God’s hand. But if the chariots of fire are against you, then it doesn’t matter where you hide, if doesn’t matter what you do, you are doomed for destruction. So, how can you be sure that God’s chariots of fire are working for you and not against you? Centuries later, a group of soldiers were also trying to capture a prophet and kill him in the garden of Gethsemane. This prophet was the fulfilment of everything Elisha was. Elisha’s name means “My God is salvation.” And the God who saved was in that garden surrounded by his enemies. When one of his disciples saw what happened, he freaked out and drew a sword. But listen to what Jesus said. Matthew 26:52-54 – ⁵² Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. ⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” Did you get that? Jesus said that if he wanted to, he could have twelve legions of angels protecting him right there. It means there were 72000 angels ready to protect Jesus at any time. He could have the chariots of fire fighting for him. But why didn’t he? Because Jesus came to fulfil the Scriptures. Jesus did not come to unleash the chariots of fire on his enemies. Jesus came to be abandoned by the chariots of fire. Why? Because that’s the only way you can have the chariots of fire working for you.

The only reason God’s chariots of fire are working for you is because Jesus took what you deserve, so God could give you what you do not deserve. That’s the story of the gospel. When Elisha’s enemy surrounded him, they were struck blind. But when Jesus was surrounded by his enemies, they weren’t struck blind. Instead, darkness came down on Jesus. He absorbed all of God’s wrath toward sin so that whoever put their faith in Jesus would receive a relationship with God, and the protection of chariots of fire. Jesus is the God who came to save. Jesus is the true Elisha. And listen. To the degree you see Jesus being abandoned by the chariots of fire for your sake, to that degree you can know the chariots of fire will never abandon you. When you look at what Jesus has done for you at the cross, that’s how you know that God is for you. God and his legion of angels are not going to abandon you no matter what kind of struggle you face because Jesus was already abandoned for you.

Let me close with this. Whether we can see it or not, there are chariots of fire all around us right now. That’s why we have no reason to be afraid. The reason we struggle right now, whatever struggle it is, is because we don’t see as well as we ought to see. What we need is for God to open our eyes to see what we cannot see. Whatever is bothering us, the answer is for God to open our eyes to behold the beauty of Jesus Christ in the gospel. What we need is gospel spectacles that allow us to see a world filled with horses and chariots of fire working all things for God’s glory and our good. And the only way to do that is through prayer. I don’t think any Christians need to be told that they need to pray. Yet the number one problem in my Christian’s life is prayerlessness. I like to think that I can do Christian’s life on my own strength. Of course, I never say it with my mouth, but it is reflected in my lack of prayer life. But today we are reminded that Christian life is not about what we can see with our physical eyes; it is about seeing what the eyes cannot see. It is a supernatural life. Only God can make us see what the eyes cannot see. The horses and the chariots of fire are there all along. But for us to see, we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes. That’s why we should be praying on our knees consistently asking him to open our eyes to see. Prayer is not optional. It is a necessity. Prayer enables us to see things as they actually are. That’s why we constantly need to pray, “God, open my eyes to see what I cannot see.” Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. How does the fact that God knows the deep and hidden things encourage you?
3. What does it mean to have a spiritual sight and why is it important?
4. Why can Christians respect non-Christians in a way that no other religion can?
5. How can you be sure that the chariots of fire are working for you?