Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 6:13–23, “And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.”
Every army’s most precious possession is its intelligence. It is as important for any army to know as much as they can about their enemy as it is for their enemy to know as little as possible about them. Superior intelligence wins wars. Of course the people who trust in the Lord always have superior intelligence about their foes. The king of Syria decided that he needed to eliminate the Israeli’s superior source of intelligence so he sent an army to Israel. This man must have had extreme confidence in his own powers for he should have understood that Israel would already know what he was doing and be prepared for him. Elisha was living in a town called Dothan, which is about 20 kilometres (ten miles) north of Samaria. One morning Elisha’s servant, by this time Gehazi had been replaced because he had leprosy) woke up and saw that the town was surrounded by a large army and he was afraid. He ran to Elisha wondering what they should do about this siege. Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his servant’s spiritual eyes and the man saw that there was an even larger army of heavenly soldiers around the Syrian army. After this Elisha prayed to the Lord and the entire Syrian army was struck with blindness. Elisha asked the generals where they were going with their army and they told him they were looking for Elisha. Obviously they didn’t personally know the prophet or the sound of his voice. Elisha led them right into the middle of Samaria and left them there. After that, the Syrians could see again. The Israeli king asked what he should do with the soldiers and Elisha told them to repatriate them as prisoners of war. The Syrians realised that they couldn’t succeed against Israel at that time so they stopped sending contingents of soldiers down to Israel for a while.
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