Recovering, Guarding & Sparking Heads

It's a church that's new to you. We are especially glad you're here today. And as Matt mentioned, we have scripture journals available in the back if you want to even get up and pick one up now.

And we are using them to walk through our book of 2 Kings, our study of 2 Kings. We're up to chapter 6 today. So we're making some progress through this book, an interesting book with a lot of amazing events of history, learning about the people of God in the kingdom. And if you need

any encouragement that the kingdom of our country is, well, it's not perfect, that's for sure. Take some solace in things being pretty bad in Israel too. But we pray for our country. As Matt mentioned, it was a big week and we want to continue to pray for just the outcomes. And

there'll now be a stage of some appointments and just a really major change in the government. And some of us might be very hopeful about that. Others might be somewhat fearful or a lot fearful about that. And we want to go to the Lord and we want to be the body of Christ that is unified.

And I don't know about you, but I don't have all the political answers. There are levels of expertise that I don't understand. So sometimes things seem better to me in some ways, but I have to trust and pray that the Lord works at the levels that I don't know and don't understand. And so let's do that.

Let's pray now before we get into God's word. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for a country where we have a voice and where there's an ability to select our rulers. And Father, we are encouraged that if the

apostle Paul can pray for kings and those in charge in his day, and those would be some Caesars, some emperors that did some pretty horrific things. But if he can pray for them, Father, we can pray for our leaders. And we do. We do pray for wisdom. We do pray, Lord, for humility. Father, we pray that

you would again, as Andrew mentioned a moment ago, create, Lord, an environment where the rock, the rock that is your kingdom will persist and grow and expand. Lord, kingdoms rise and fall,

countries come and go, but this kingdom of God keeps going. And that is our ultimate hope in what you are doing in the kingdom through the work of your son. And we thank you and praise you. Father, this morning, we think specifically of needs in our own family. We pray for Alexi Deal, who is in the

hospital right now doing a c-section to give birth to twins. Father, we pray that you would be with this family and with the extended family and especially watch over, Lord, this birth and these new lives. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me begin reading for us in verse 1. I'm going to

read all the way through verse 23 today. Verse 1, 2 Kings chapter 6. Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too

2 Kings 6 · chapter mention

small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log and let us make a place for us to dwell there. And he answered, Go. Then one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.

But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water. And he cried out, Alas, my master, it was borrowed. Then the man of God said, Where did it fall? When he showed him the place, he cut

off a stick and threw it in there and it made the iron float. And he said, Take it up. So he reached out his hand and took it up. 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. 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.

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. 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? 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. And he said, Go and see where he is that I may send and seize him. It was told, Behold, he is in Dothan. So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 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? He said, Do not be afraid, for those who are with

us are more than those who are with them. 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. 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. 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 into Samaria. 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. 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? He answered, You shall not strike them down. Would you strike 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? 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. Starting with that first story up above, if you're anything like me, you think to yourself, I'm not quite

sure that these are similar scale stories. A lost tool, an implement, and raiding parties and massive armies. Well, it may seem that way to those of us that aren't living in the day that Elisha and these sons of the prophets are, but let's just try to maybe zoom in our

focus on this son of the prophet, this man that has this little mishap. He loses an axe head. An axe may not seem like a very big deal to very many of us today. I know in my day, I'm not particularly good with an axe, and so I have broken many axes. And I now bought the

kind that isn't wood, so I just dent up the axe head. But I've broken some axes, and I checked, and I think you can get a new axe for about 40 bucks at Lowe's or Menards or wherever it is. But we have to understand that back here in Elisha's time, I want you to get

a little better scale of what's going on here. Iron implements, this is early in the Iron Age. Iron implements are very expensive, and they're really frankly kind of rare and very difficult to make. And so this is actually a pretty big deal, this little crisis that

happens on this construction project. So again, it all starts out in verse 1, and this son of the prophet, you know, this is like a little seminary, if you will, for Elisha. And these men have been studying and training with him, and they say, hey, you know, there's too many

of us in this place we've been meeting in. Our chapel, so to speak, is just too small. And so we think we should just go down to the river, because there's good trees down there by the Jordan, and let us each pitch in and do our part. We'll all fell a log, and we

will build a new place for us to dwell that can hold us better. Elisha agrees. And yet in verse 4, one of them says to him, well, you know, can you come too? And he agrees to that as well. He goes with them, and that turns out to be pretty important. And so I

just imagine this work day, you know, we had a work day yesterday. Here's a work day, and there's laughing probably going on, and maybe some joking. And all of a sudden, the laughing stops when the calamity guy, right? You ever been to a work day? Do they all have one?

A calamity guy? The calamity guy, he's swinging his axe, and all of a sudden somebody hears him say, oh, man. And he's out there looking at his axe handle with nothing on it, and he says, it flew right off my axe head. I was just chopping the wood like a good worker,

and all of a sudden the axe handle got real light. And you know what? I heard a splash. Guys, I think it landed in the middle of the river somewhere. And alas, my master, he now turns to Elisha, and he turns with alarm in his voice. That expensive, state-of-the-art

tool that I was using today, I borrowed it. It's a borrowed tool. Now, again, for you and I, we really probably don't think it's that big of a deal. Another 40, 50 bucks, you can go buy an axe. But remember, back in this day, these are rare. One scholar says maybe a good

equivalent would be like borrowing somebody's nice car and wrecking it and having no insurance, just to give you a sense. And furthermore, passages in the law, Israel's law, like Exodus

Exodus 22:14

22, verse 14, required full restitution. In other words, if you borrow something from your neighbor and you break it, or if it's an animal and it dies, or if you lose it like this guy

did, you are on the hook. This young man knows that he is going to have to personally come up with a pretty significant price. And given that his career is working as a son of the prophet,

I don't think he makes much money, if any at all. So it's not like he's got a lot of options. And the scholars are probably right when they say that unless somebody does something for him, he's probably looking at debt slavery, having to sell himself into debt slavery to pay off this

debt. That could be calamitous for him. That could be calamitous for his family. But look at Elisha. Here he is, all calm and cool and collected. And he asks the panicking man,

where did it fall? Where in the river? And the man points to the place, and we're told that Elisha cuts off a stick, throws it into the river, and strangely something happens. As the stick

sinks, it's almost like the properties of the two things transfer, the buoyancy of the stick versus the sinkability of the axe, the iron. And there's a reversal that happens, and up comes the

iron axe head as the stick sinks. And before anybody can say, what in the world is happening here? This defies the laws of physics. They didn't know the laws of physics, but they know that doesn't usually happen. Elisha simply says, pick it up. And the man reaches out. I don't know

if he had to wait out, I would assume a little bit. And he picks it up. And just like that,

delivered this man from slavery by taking away his debt. Well, that's the end of the first story.

And the writer here, if you didn't notice, he's really good with transitions. Because in verse 8, he goes on to say, once, I got another story for you. Here it is. Once, he goes on to tell us, we don't know how long after, we don't know if it's the same day, the same month, the same year.

But what he does is he intentionally takes our focus, it's been zoomed in, very narrow, on a very personal issue, very practical issue. And now, the focus pulls back. It's a national focus. And we are made aware that there has been something going on in Israel that's a nuisance to

Israel that the king of Syria is very much directly involved in. Basically, they are making raids into Israel. Raiding parties. This king of Syria has been strategizing with his lieutenants, taking counsel with them, planning their raids. And I don't know about you, but I can just imagine them all

kind of hovering over a map. And hey, let's send a raiding party here. They won't expect that. Let's hit Israel over there. And we'll make our camp over here. And they won't be able to find us.

Because the only problem is, every time he tries to do something, every move they make, it's almost like somebody's given the playbook to the enemy. It's almost like the king of Israel

knows all about what they're planning and doing. Because each plan is foiled and frustrated. It gets so bad. It's kind of funny. It gets so bad. So obvious that Israel has perfect intelligence.

Perfect intel. That the king of Syria finally gathers his top advisors and he's like, who's the traitor? Which one of you is the mole? It's got to be one of you. Verse 11.

Who is secretly among us who is for the enemy? And I'm sure right about at that time, everybody starts staring at the ground, right? Hands in pockets. Isn't that what you do when the

boss is upset? Maybe you stare at each other. It's not me. No, it's not me. And they basically say, seriously, boss, everybody, we're all solid. Nobody's for the king of Israel. And finally, one of the servants of the king blurts out in verse 12. He says, it's not like that, my lord,

oh king. But you see, there's this guy, Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel. And I got to tell you, he has some kind of special abilities. He's like a one man foreign intelligence agency for our enemy

to the south. Apparently, he has been feeding the king of Israel all this intel by telling him the words that you speak in your bedroom. He's like a fly on the wall somewhere. Somehow he knows exactly

what you're going to do and where your soldiers are going to be even before you tell us. And that's why we're being systematically outwitted and outmaneuvered. And in fact, if we back up a couple of verses to verse nine, we we've already been told that that's exactly what's

been happening, that Elisha has doing been doing precisely this. He's been feeding the king of Israel, presumably Jehoram. I mean, these two didn't always get along, but apparently he's helping him out now feeding him intelligence. He's been helping the king by telling him things like, hey,

beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are going to go down there. And we're told he's been doing it repeatedly more than once or twice. Well, that's it. Our king is enraged.

And this king of Syria barks orders in verse 13. He says, I want you to go and see, find out where he is. And the funny thing is, you got to love the irony right about now. The humor of it begins to really just kind of come out of the story because you're thinking to yourself, if, if it's true,

if Elisha, the man of God is actually doing what the king thinks he's able to do. And if he's going to send a delegation to raid and try to kidnap Elisha, won't he know that? But he's mad. And when you're mad, sometimes you don't think the clearest, right? And so it gets even funnier when somebody

tells the king, you know, it's not like Elisha's hiding. Everybody knows he's in Dothan. We know he's in Dothan. We know right where he's at. And just like that in verse 14, the king dispatches his troops, horses, we're told, chariots. Our narrator calls it a great army. It's probably

not the full Syrian army, but maybe several raiding bands put together. It's a larger force. And the plan is this, to go by night, surround the city, and take the prophet by surprise at sunrise.

I want him alive. The king is, I imagine him saying, I imagine him saying, I want him alive because I want you to bring him back here as a hostage because we're going to put him to work for us. That's why he wants him. And so it all unfolds in verse 15. We've got the sun rising over the

mountains west of Dothan. And it's kind of funny. First up in Elisha's house is not the prophet. It's one of his servants. I imagine Elisha's sleeping like a baby. He's not worried. And the servant, he gets up and he, you know, stretches and maybe rubs the sleep out of his eyes and he steps outside

and he looks. And what in the world? We're told, behold, it's an army with horses and chariots. And they're all around the city. They've completely surrounded Dothan. And this servant is freaking out. Alas, my master, he's probably waking him up. What are we going to do?

Now, I've never been to war. I've never fought in a battle in my life. But can you imagine what this would have been like? Can you imagine waking up one morning in your house and you open up your front door to look out and you see that your entire neighborhood is surrounded and all the

roads are cut off, blockaded, and they're coming for you. But Elisha, again, is not worried. Look at him. Or more like, listen to him. Because this is what he says. He says, do not be afraid for those who

are with us are more than those who are with them. Now, I don't know how many people lived in Dothan at the time, but this is not a major city. It's a smaller village. It's a peaceful village.

I do not believe they have a standing army here in Dothan. It is not a military outpost for Israel. Was Elisha's servant about to point all of this out to his master? What are you talking about? More

with us than with them? We don't have anybody. But before he can say anything, he looks over at the prophet. And I imagine the prophet's got his head bowed and his lips are moving and maybe there's a whisper that he can hear. He hears the prophet say in verse 17, O Lord, please open his eyes that he

may see. Verse 17. 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. The servant is granted supernatural

vision. What he's given is a glimpse into the spirit world. And what he sees is a mighty, intimidating, massive angelic army with horses and flaming chariots. And if the Syrians are right outside the city,

what this means is that they have surrounded the surrounding army. Kind of makes you wonder when you're reading through some of the Bible, like the Psalms. Do you ever read things like this from psalmists like David? You wonder, is he being symbolic? He writes this in Psalm 34, verse 7.

Psalms 34:7

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Or what about this Psalm? In Psalm 91, verse 11, it reads, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

Psalms 91:11

That one actually pops up in the New Testament. Satan quotes that one out of context. Jesus in his temptation. But right here we see, and surely Elisha's awestruck servant sees that this is in fact actually true.

That there are invisible supernatural forces present and at work in the world. And the Lord does encamp around those who fear him.

Well, our story's hardly over because what happens next is not just entertaining, it's downright comical. Elisha doesn't do what Elijah did in chapter 1 of 2 Kings.

Remember when men were sent? It was actually the king of Israel that sent men. And he called down fire from heaven. Elisha doesn't do that. He just prays against them.

And he prays in verse 18, Lord, please strike this people with blindness. It's really the total reverse of what he's just prayed for for his servant, right?

Give him sight to see. Make them blind. And the Lord does it. He strikes them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. Now, this is probably not total blindness.

Because they go on, as we read, they go on to make an 11 mile journey down to Samaria with Elisha leading the way. So it's probably more like a dazed condition.

Some kind of a visual befuddlement. Imagine like a trance-like state that they're in. But it enables them to be led unsuspectingly right into danger.

If you're a Star Wars fan, notice how Elisha pulls the old Jedi mind trick, doesn't he? These are not the droids you're looking for, right? George Lucas would be proud.

All the great ideas in Hollywood are from the Bible. What does he say in verse 19? He says, and I imagine him with like a, you know, a Ben Kenobi robe on or something.

This is not the way. And this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man you seek. He's the man they seek. And so the whole army, there they are in this drone-like entranced condition, following Elisha.

And it's like over mountains. It's a winding path. It's an uphill journey, 11 miles. That's like a half a day. Leads them right into the heart of Israel's capital, Samaria.

And no sooner is the last troop inside the walls of the city of Samaria, this big Syrian raiding band, you know, this small army led right there.

And no sooner is the last guy in, and then there's another prayer, a third prayer from Elisha. He says in verse 20, Lord, open the eyes of these men now.

How freaked out are these Syrians, right? Their king has sent them to capture Elisha, and yet somehow Elisha's managed to capture all of them.

Thanks to the Lord. And then there's another comical turn in verse 21. Another humorous turn. The king of Israel, Jehoram. I imagine he's inside his palace doing whatever kings do, and someone gets him.

They're like, you've got to come outside. And so he does. He comes outside, and already the palace guard, the troops have surrounded this band, and they've got bows drawn and swords drawn.

And he can't believe his eyes. And he's very excited. He's kind of babbling. He's like, my father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?

Our king is confused. He's very animated at this turn of events with literally his enemies falling into his hands. And notice how he speaks to Elisha with such respect.

He refers to him as my father. What he's doing is he is deferring to him for permission. He very much wants to slaughter them. But he's deferring to the prophet.

He's probably wanting to slaughter them because not too long ago, his own father, Ahab, had some Syrians and a Syrian king under his thumb, and he let them go.

And he got in trouble for that. But Elisha stops him in verse 22. He says, no, you shall not strike them down. And he proceeds to remind the king, these are prisoners of war.

You've got these men securely captured. Your archers have drawn down on them. They're helpless. Here's what you should do. Instead, I'm telling you to set a meal before them.

Remember, this is a time of famine. He says, bring them bread and water. Let them eat and drink. And then send them back home to their master, unharmed.

Commentators have noted how the king here, he looks pretty foolish and impulsive, blurting out excitedly, wanting to massacre everybody right there on the spot.

And now with his prophet reminding him of the rules of war, we don't do that. It's not a good look for him. But he listens. Our king listens.

After all, he knows that they're not really his prisoners anyway. These are the Lord's prisoners. And if his prophet says to spare them and set a feast before them, that's what you do.

And so in verse 23, he prepared for them what's described as a great feast. And when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away and they went to their master.

Can you imagine these Syrian soldiers, what they've been through on this day? Finally waking up with their eyes open, scared out of their wits that they're all going to die.

Now fed with their bellies full. Now with their heart rates back to a normal beat. Going back home to tell their king quite the story. Or maybe they made a different one up.

Because I don't know who would believe this. And it's almost like the king of Syria does get the message. So maybe they did tell him the real story.

The message that Israel's God, the true God, is not going to sit idly by while you keep raiding his people. Because single-handedly, Yahweh's lone prophet has managed to capture the very army that you sent to try to capture him.

As we step back and look at these two stories here this morning. I think the question, maybe the focus, is really all about God.

You know, sometimes in scripture we learn things about ourselves. We learn about our experience as human beings. And in all its perplexity and complexity, I should say, in the fallen world that we inhabit.

But I think today is fundamentally meant to be about God. What do we learn about Him? Specifically, we might ask, what is God meaning to teach His people about Himself?

Well, based on some of the things that we've seen in these two stories this morning, I would like to offer you just two points. Two points that speak to God and what He is like.

Here's the first one. Point number one. Ours is a God who recovers axe heads, guards faithful heads, and spares enemy heads.

Let's start with the axe head. Son of the prophet, He's out there, He's chopping away right by the river. Whoops.

All of a sudden, He's in a big predicament that could very well mean a major change in His life. Again, does He have a family? Does He have a wife?

Because He's just incurred the debt of a car loan for all intents and purposes, a debt that He can't pay. Axe heads are not cheap to replace.

And yet, the Lord shows Himself to be concerned about this very small-scale event. From a big and national concern to a very small and personal need right here.

And His prophet, God's prophet, works His power for the benefit of this man. Essentially, paying the debt by means of a piece of wood. It reminds me of something that happened.

It's a little bit like that. Only on a much, much larger scale. I can think of a time where God took care of debts with a piece of wood. Can you?

He didn't, of course, cast that wood into the water. But He did cast His one and only Son down upon that piece of wood. And by it, He recovered heads.

He recovered the heads of people. By providing atonement on the wood of Christ's cross, the Lord didn't just recover a measly iron tool instrument.

He recovered people. People like me and you from the death, the slavery of our own sins. Of course, sometimes we have smaller problems than salvation.

That's our biggest need. Our biggest problem is that we need saved. But sometimes we have other things in life. Other what we might call axe-head level problems in our lives.

Maybe you're going through a struggle right now in your own life. Maybe you have some need that's facing you this week or this month. Personal crisis.

Crisis. This morning, remember that the God who redeems a people loves those people. And He sees it. And He cares about you. And He can recover the axe-head mishaps of your life.

And notice what else He does here. He doesn't just recover axe-heads. He also guards faithful heads. And I'm thinking of a... I don't know if it was big.

A big, bald head on the shoulders of a man named Elisha. Right? He guards this faithful head. Because as that prophet is asleep at night in his bed.

And that invading army swarms Dothan outside and surrounds the city. And his servant wakes up first. And he sees it and freaks out. We quickly see what our servant is allowed to see.

And that's that God has sent an angelic army to guard and surround His faithful ones. Guard... God guards faithful heads. He did it on this day back in Dothan.

And He is very much able to do it with every faithful head that serves Him now.

Here's what the Apostle Paul reminds us over in the New Testament. In 2 Thessalonians. I want you to hear this. 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 3. He writes, But the Lord is faithful.

2 Thessalonians 3:3

He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. This is why Jesus once said that we shouldn't fear those that can only harm us physically.

But can't do anything to our soul. Because He's in charge. And as Job's story, Job of the Old Testament, as his story reminds us. Evil can only extend as far as the divine limits allow it.

But the Lord promises to guard those who are His own. And honestly, as we've seen from our servant, Often the servants of the Lord like you and me, We don't know what's going on in the supernatural world.

We're as blind to the supernatural world as this servant was on that day. We don't see the spiritual battle raging all around us. We usually don't see angels.

I personally have never seen an angel. And yet I know they're there. And we know that the scriptures do bear witness to us that they are there.

The angels are with us. In fact, they are with us right now as we are gathered to worship as God's people. 1 Peter chapter 1 tells us that the angels long to look into the outworking of salvation in the church.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians 4, Paul refers to himself and the other apostles. He says we're a spectacle. A spectacle to the world. To angels and to men. And you know, later on in the same book in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, In a discussion about head coverings of all things,

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

He again mentions angels. And he pretty clearly implies that the angels are watching and observing us in our worship services. Think about that.

Good thing we got a high ceiling, right? That's not a problem for angels. They're not in our dimension. I want you to know, God is a God who guards faithful heads.

And as for those enemy heads, how about that? Well, what happens at the end of our story in verse 23? The enemies of God are all crushed, right?

No, they're not. Actually, a great feast is prepared and set before these enemies. Before these would-be captors of Elisha, who themselves are now the captives.

They're fed. They're given drink. And they are sent home in peace.

Seems like Israel was just acting out the very explicit advice from the book of Proverbs. It's also repeated in the New Testament book of Romans.

Let me read Proverbs 25, verses 21 and 22 for us. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

Proverbs 25:21

For you will heap burning coals on his head. And the Lord will reward you. But that's what God does for enemy heads. And really, when we pause to think about it, when we stop to think about things from a theological perspective,

and remember what we were to God before and apart from Christ, it's enemies. Every person was an enemy to God before Christ. And yet, this is exactly what our Father has done with all our heads.

He spared them. He's offered to spare them by offering His Son for us. To spare the guilt that would otherwise be on our heads. To transfer us from the realm of enemy to now friend.

From outsider to now family, son, daughter. God spares enemy heads. So that's our first point. To know that God recovers our axe heads in life.

To know that He guards our faithful heads. And to know that He's in the business of sparing enemy heads. But I have a second point for us as well.

And that second point is this. Number two. Ours is a God who hears, intervenes, and controverts by blinding and giving sight.

Ours is a God who hears, intervenes, and controverts by blinding and giving sight. But, let's start with the hearing, right? Because in our story, God hears, doesn't He?

He's a God who listens. First thing He listens to are all those plots and plans to raid Israel, right? King Assyria in his bedroom or wherever he is talking.

Our God hears. Listens to everything He says. To reveal it to His prophets. Our God is a God who hears and who knows. The Bible tells us nothing escapes His attention.

That's one way He hears. Here's another way. God also hears when His people talk to Him. When we pray. No less than three different times do we see the man of God, Elisha, doing just that.

He is praying. Verse 17. Then Elisha prayed. O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. Verse 18. Elisha prayed to the Lord, please strike the army with blindness.

And finally, once they're safely inside Samaria. In verse 20. It's a third prayer for the Lord to do what He does. That He would now open the eyes of the Syrian raiders.

And each time he prays, the Lord hears. And He doesn't just hear. He also acts and intervenes. An axe head floats. So it can be retrieved. And slavery can be avoided.

Spiritual sight comes to Elisha's servant's eyes. Blindness comes to all the Syrian invaders. And then, just as quickly as it befell them, they have their full vision restored so that their terrified eyes can stare at all those bows drawn on them.

In Samaria.

But more than just intervene. There's really another level to it, isn't there? God also does something else to the enemies of Israel. He contravenes.

Or I should say controverts. Turns back their bad intentions. Because what are their intentions? To keep raiding Israel. Keep afflicting Israel.

Keep making trouble in Israel.

Somehow the king of Israel learns and knows. So Israel is no longer caught off guard. They are prepared. And the Syrians and their plans are controverted.

They intend then to try to capture God's prophet and make Elisha like a double agent for them. But that plan also gets controverted in a very humorous way.

And by the time we get to Israel's otherwise pretty bad king, Jehoram, who's salivating at the prospect of slaughtering a captive army that's been hand-delivered to him, God speaks through his prophet and contravenes, I should say controverts, that king's plan too.

No, you're not going to kill them. We don't kill POWs. Set food before them. Bread and water before these men. Feed them. Pour some burning coals upon their heads.

By nourishing them. And send them back home peacefully to their master.

Maybe you're in a place right now this morning where you need to hear something like this. Maybe you need to be reminded of what kind of God we serve.

That he is a God who hears. Do you forget that? That he hears the enemy threats and plans that are set against you. That he hears your prayers when you pray to him.

If you're a believer, then you serve a God who hears and knows and cares about all that's going on in your life. Whether it's a big massive thing or a very small thing.

Enormous scale problem to small scale problem. God hears and he cares. Maybe it's a physical issue you're dealing with. A relational issue. A fear that you have.

A worry that's been plaguing your heart. Maybe it's just some concern about something in the future. He wants you to bring it to him in prayer.

Because he wants you to know that he's a God who will hear. And listen. And he's also a God who can act and intervene. Right? According to his wisdom.

Which we don't always understand. Sometimes his purposes are mysterious to us. But we can still trust him. Even when we don't understand his ways.

In fact, I would argue we should especially then trust him. When we don't understand his ways. Because he's told us that he works for our good.

In accordance with his purposes. I think I've read that in the book of Romans. Maybe you have too. Romans 8.28. Paul says, and we know. For the believer.

We know. That for those who love God. All things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. And as for the destruction.

And the turmoil. And the disruption. And the pain. And the heartache. And havoc. That the enemy is always trying to wreak in the lives of God's people.

Whether ancient Israel. Or modern day believers like you and I. As for all that nastiness. That he's trying to work in our lives. Or in the lives of your family.

Or in the lives of a close friend. Remember that our God is a God who controverts. This wickedness. He can blind and give sight. He can hide.

And reveal. And he holds this world in his hands. Along with yes. Even the heart of every ruler. Ancient or modern. God.

And he of course is a God. Who entered our world. To redeem it. In his son. And he will one day. Send that son again. To reclaim this world.

So this morning. This is what your God wants you to see. And this is what he wants you to know. About him and his ways. Because the same God.

Who heard and intervened. And controverted evil. For his man Elisha. Is the same God. Who is able to do that. For you. And for me. Right now today.

Let's pray. Together. Let's pray. And thank God. For being who he is.

Heavenly Father. We come to you. In the name of your son. It's because of Jesus. And the access he provided. It's because he went to the cross.

To take the guilt off of our heads. And put it on his own. That we have this access to you. To come to your throne. And Lord. We simply pray.

Would you give us the eyes. To see spiritually. Where we need. Your eyes to see. Lord. Where there is blindness for us. Remove that. Give us trust.

Lord. Where it seems like. We're in a jam. Because something went really wrong. Remind us that you care about everything. Lord. Even the sparrow that falls to the ground.

You know every hair. Numbered on our head. Right. And so Lord. I pray for the person. Who might be listening this morning. That has felt like you are distant.

Or has felt like that you don't care. And you're uninvolved. Or the person who is. Led to question promises. Like we have in Romans 8. That for those who love you.

Yes. It's true. We can be assured. That you work all things together. For good. So Lord. Show us what that good is. It may not be the good. That we want at the moment.

But your ways. And what you see as good. Is ultimately the best. We know that. And so Lord. We pray for your people. We pray for our hearts.

And pray that you would get the glory. In whatever transpires in our lives. This week. Next month. This coming year. We pray this together in Jesus name.

Amen.