What's Really Going On?

[Elisha’s servant said], “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” … The prophet answered, “Those who are with us are more than are with them” (2 Kings 6:15-16).

 

We’re beginning a new series, “Eyes Wide Open.”  Let’s set the scene for this week’s Scripture passage: 

 

It’s been about 200 years since King David, and around 850 years before Jesus.  God’s people Israel, originally united into one nation under David, has become separated into a southern kingdom (“Judah”) and a northern kingdom (“Israel” – yes, it can be confusing).  Our Scripture takes place in the northern kingdom.

 

The experience of God’s people with their kings has been anything but smooth; most of their kings are characterized in Scripture as evil.  Many of their kings led the people into apostasy and idolatry, and into ill-advised entanglements, alliances and treaties with suspect foreign powers.  Part of God’s response was to send prophets.

 

The primary job of a prophet was not to “foretell the future,” but to call God’s people, especially their kings, to account before God.  Israel’s first and in many ways greatest prophet was Elijah. Today’s passage features his successor in the prophetic line, Elisha.

 

Israel has always been surrounded by enemies.  The current threat comes from up north, from Aram, an area which we today know as Syria.  Israel at the time was not particularly powerful and was therefore subject to frequent marauding raids from Aram.

 

So far, this story is pretty straightforward geopolitics.  What’s going on here is pretty much what is always going on: competing rulers, jostling for power, position and influence.  Easy to explain, easy to understand, just the way life always works.

 

Except here, what’s really going on is God.  It seems that God has been kind of spying on the Arameans, letting Israel’s king know, via Elisha, where the Arameans are moving, what they’re planning.  The Aramean king learns of this and decides to take Elisha off the board. He sends “a strong force” by night to surround the city where Elisha is staying.

 

Elisha’s servant awakens and immediately sees the predicament: “What shall we do?”

 

Elisha is placidly unconcerned, because he sees what his servant can’t: the armies of God surrounding their surrounders.  Elisha doesn’t do nothing; he prays for his panicked servant: “O LORD, open his eyes.”

 

It’s easy to think we understand and can explain our lives: we’re merely the products of genetics, family history, psychology, economic status, decisions made and so on.

 

Except what’s really going on in your life is God: God whispering, nudging, poking, prodding, maybe even sending you a “prophet” of some kind, so that your eyes could be opened to what’s really going on: God at work.  But not everyone sees it, as we’ll see as the story unfolds.

 

Is there a place in your life where you feel trapped, surrounded?  Are you struggling to believe or see God at work around you—even and especially if and where you feel “surrounded”?  Make Elisha’s prayer yours today: “Lord, open my eyes that I might see.” 

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