Chariots of Fire
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to 2nd Kings chapter 6. 2nd Kings chapter 6. While you're turning there, I I just want to kind of explain where we are going to be for the next few weeks, months ahead. So this is gonna be our last week going through Elijah and Elisha. Next week, I'm gonna go through Psalm 23, and really look at the Lord who restores our soul.
Joel Brooks:I thought we, we could use a little restoration of our soul during this season. And then we begin Advent. And our Advent series is we're gonna look how different people responded to the Christ child. Come the new year, we'll be going through the book of Philippians. And then, Lord willing, I hope, I pray.
Joel Brooks:Lord willing, come Palm Sunday and Easter, we will begin our series on Romans. But of course, everything, you know, you have to have the COVID asterisk on this. Everything seems to change a few days out. But this is where we are planning to go in the next few weeks months ahead. But this morning, 2nd Kings chapter 6.
Joel Brooks:I'll begin reading in verse 8. Once when the king of Assyria 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 you, do not pass this place for the Syrians are going down there. And the God of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him.
Joel Brooks:Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself more than once or twice. And the mind of the king of Assyria 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, oh king. But Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, he tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.
Joel Brooks:He said go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him. It was told him, behold, he is in Dothan. So he sent their 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.
Joel Brooks: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, oh 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.
Joel Brooks: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 to Samaria. As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, oh, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see.
Joel Brooks: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 Elijah, my father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down? He answered, you shall not strike them down.
Joel Brooks: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. 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.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, we do pray that You would open up the eyes of our hearts. We might come to see and understand the word you would have for us. Pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Okay. So there is a whole lot that happens in this story.
Joel Brooks:I find it utterly fascinating. I mean, once again, we get to see these fiery chariots, and and horses that come. But really at its core, this story is only about 2 things. I mean, forget all the other little details around there and just if you focus in on the main thing, it's simply this. This is a story about blindness and sight, about blindness and sight.
Joel Brooks:And by blindness, I'm not talking about a physical blindness here. I'm talking about an inability to perceive what is true, an inability to perceive reality. And sight is when you're given that ability to see what is really going on, both on heaven and on earth. And I wanna go ahead and encourage you that 5 years ago, July 12th actually, 2015, one of our elders, Thomas Ritchie, preached on this text. And he did an absolutely fantastic job walking through this.
Joel Brooks:I wanna encourage you to go back in our archives, on our website, and you can listen to that. But you're going to hear a lot of the same themes because once again, it's really a story about being blind and then coming to sight. So the story begins here with the king of Syria. He's frustrated because Israel seems to always know his plans. They always seem to be a step ahead of him.
Joel Brooks:Somehow they know exactly when and where he's going to strike. And this happened with such frequency, he begins to suspect that there's a spy in their midst. You know, one of his own staff has to secretly be spying and and working for the enemy. However, everyone is assuring him it's it's not the case. It wasn't any one of them.
Joel Brooks:It's Lane Kiffin. He's stealing signs, and he's reporting it back. Sometimes, you just have to use a football analogy just to get your attention, you know, make things connect. But there there is interesting. It's not us.
Joel Brooks:It's not us. It's Elisha. He's stealing the words from you. He can actually hear what you were saying on your bed as you lay down. He knows your secret thoughts.
Joel Brooks:So the king says, well, we gotta hunt this man down. And just for a moment, I want you to think for the about the absurdity of what the king has just asked to do when he says we need to hunt down Elisha. I mean, they they all just agree that Elisha knows every move the king is going to make before he makes it. And yet now they think they can actually make a move without Elisha knowing about it, they can actually somehow strike Elisha without him knowing about it. Of course, Elisha's gonna know about this trap.
Joel Brooks:It's absurd thinking. It's illogical. What they should be doing in light of knowing that a prophet of God can hear even the most inner, most secrets of one's heart, can hear what he whispers on his bed at night, what they all should be doing is repent. They should know that such a God, such a prophet of that God, if he knows these secrets, he knows my sins and I should be repenting. That's what they should be doing is repentance and quit attacking Israel.
Joel Brooks:But they don't. And here at the start of the story, we see what will be a theme throughout, blindness. They're blind, spiritually blind. They couldn't see their own sin. They don't see their own need to repent.
Joel Brooks:And in their sinfulness, they actually become an irrational people, and they begin running around blind. And, of course, this blindness is all around us in our culture. I don't I don't check Facebook that often. There's actually been times I've been really tempted to just shut it down. But one of the reasons I stay on Facebook is because I want to know who the crazies are.
Joel Brooks:Okay? I need I need to know and so I keep, you know, as friends some some really extreme people out there, so I know who the crazies are. So just because we're Facebook friends, don't don't assume things, alright? I might not have unfriended you for other reasons. But anyway, you you don't have to be on social media long to realize that people are always speaking out of both sides of their mouths.
Joel Brooks:The people, they they spew out the most irrational thoughts. For instance, I can read a post from someone who makes a passionate plea for everyone to trust in science and to listen to our doctors in regards to how we are to fight this pandemic. Yet the very next day, I can read from the same person a post that is pro abortion, essentially telling us to reject what science clearly tells us about life in the womb, and that that is a fully human life in the womb, a child that can even feel pain. There's an irrationality there. It's an irrationality that comes from being spiritually blind, and basically it's gonna be through the lens of their sin that they're gonna choose to believe whatever they want to believe.
Joel Brooks:Science suits them, grab it. Science doesn't suit them, discard it. But what else could they do because they're spiritually blind? They don't see their sin and a need to repent, and neither does a king here. So the king, he sends out, you know, his henchmen to go and and to catch Elisha and he gets word that they're in Dothan.
Joel Brooks:Elisha's in Dothan so he sends his army there, he completely surrounds the city, he sets there an ambush, and in the morning, Elisha's servant, he comes out, you can almost picture him, you know, like yawning, stretching, rubbing his eyes, and he looks and he is surrounded, an entire army has surrounded the city. And he panics. He just runs in. He wakes up Elijah and he's like, we're surrounded. What are we gonna do?
Joel Brooks:And Elijah calmly says, don't don't be afraid. We have way more people on our side than on their side. And of course, the servant has no idea what Elisha is talking about. I mean, for him, he just sees the 2 of them, and they're completely surrounded. He thinks they're like, you know, Butch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Joel Brooks:It's just the 2 of them, and doom is imminent. So Elisha prays, Lord, would you open up his eyes to see what's really going on? And suddenly his eyes are open and he sees everything differently. Because now he can see the Lord's army and he sees these fiery horses and chariots that are surrounding them, protecting them. Now I'm imagining, assuming that Elisha's servant is actually a good, decent, moral man, that he has correct theology.
Joel Brooks:I mean, after all, he's been following Elisha around as his servant for quite some time now. He likely knew the Sunday school answers to everything, but here we see his eyes hadn't been opened. He knew theology. He knew it in the abstract, though. But when his eyes were opened, that theology became real.
Joel Brooks:You know, it's one thing to, you know, to just read about the beauty of the Lord. It's another thing altogether to see that the Lord is beautiful. You know, Isaiah could talk all he wanted about God's holiness, but it wasn't till Isaiah 6 when he had that vision and he saw the lord is holy that he fell down and he said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I'm undone.
Joel Brooks:It utterly changed him when he saw what he already had believed. Seeing changes you. I can't help but think of Frank Barker, whom, just in case you you don't know who he is, I can't imagine that's possible for most people here. But, he was the founding or he's the founding pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. He's the father of the PCA denomination.
Joel Brooks:And the Lord used him in so many ways in this city to to bring out revival in many areas. Well, a few years ago, Lorna and I, we had the privilege of sitting down with Frank and just talking with him and hearing his story. And he told us, you know, that he grew up. He believed in God. At some point, he he decided he wanted to be a pastor.
Joel Brooks:He went to seminary, got trained to be a pastor. Then he left for a period to, to join the air force, and he became a pilot. And while he was in the air force, a chaplain actually came to him and shared the gospel with him. I mean, shared the gospel with the pastor. He'd gone to seminary.
Joel Brooks:And Frank said it was like he had never heard the gospel before. He said he couldn't believe what he was hearing. It just hit him afresh and new, and he realized at that moment that although he's seminary trained, studying the Bible all the time, he did not know Jesus. And Jesus became real to him, and he trusted Jesus as his lord and savior. So he was converted after seminary.
Joel Brooks:And his conversion puzzled him more than more than anything, more more than anyone. I mean, he he asked the chaplain, he said, how is this possible? How could I have never heard the gospel until now? And then he said, you know, I mean, in seminary, I just read through Martin Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians. How is it that Martin Luther missed the gospel?
Joel Brooks:And the chaplain just laughed. He goes, well, why don't you read through his commentary again? And so Frank Barker did, and he couldn't believe it, what he had missed before. Because Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, the gospel drips from every single page. He had just been blind, and he couldn't see it before.
Joel Brooks:You see, even if we grow up in church our entire lives hearing the same thing over and over, we actually have to be given spiritual eyes to see and to understand that message. Frank had to be given eyes to see and ears to hear the gospel. Because of this, I want you to notice Elisha's reaction to his servant. He understands God must open hearts. He doesn't rebuke his servant.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't rebuke him for, like, why can't you see? What's wrong with you, idiot? Why why can't you see what's going on, really going on in the world? He he doesn't do that. And he doesn't, you know, give him some certain website to go to.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say, you need to listen to this podcast, and it's gonna explain what's really happening around us. He doesn't do that. He prays for him. He prayed, because he realized this man did not need new information. He needed to see.
Joel Brooks:This is something that only the Spirit can bring about. Church, hear me. We don't need to argue with people who are blind. We need to pray that they might see. No one is ever argued into repentance.
Joel Brooks:No one has ever argued into becoming a Christian. I have shared my faith many, many times with people over the years, and I have never once had a person repent of their sin and come to faith because of incredible argument that I brought to the table. Probably for many of you, the testimony you personally have experienced is the same in which you maybe you grew up in church. You were told the gospel, and nothing happened. Then you were told the gospel and nothing.
Joel Brooks:Told the gospel, nothing. Told the gospel, nothing. Told the gospel, and all of a sudden it was like he heard it for the first time. Why? It was not new information.
Joel Brooks:It was the spirit of God opening up the eyes of your heart, making Jesus suddenly beautiful to you. In other words, your eyes were opened. And in a world that is filled with people who are spiritually blind, maybe we should spend less time trying to win an argument and time on our knees praying for sight. And we need to pray for our sight as well. Even if you were a Christian, there's gonna be times that you are blind to the heavenly realities, blind to what's really going on.
Joel Brooks:You know, other people around us who are filled with the same fear and anxiety of the world, like, when we are filled with the the fear and anxiety of the world, it's because we're perceiving the world the same way they are. Ask yourself, what do you see when you are surrounded by financial debt? What do you see when you get that bad lab report from the doctor? What do you see when you're alone on a Friday night and are so isolated? What do you see when your marriage is on the rocks?
Joel Brooks:Do you only see the enemy who has surrounded you, or do you see that there is more with you than there is with them? Church, if God is for us, who can be against us? We are never ever alone in any challenge that we face. Elisha walked out to meet that army because he knew he was not alone. So what is it that you see?
Joel Brooks:It's a probing question. Do you see the army of the enemy, or do you see the army of the Lord? And perhaps before we ever pray for deliverance from whatever situation we are in, the first thing we should pray for is sight. Because if we could actually see Jesus on his throne, and that the whole host of heaven is doing His bidding, and that this pandemic, this election, the work you are in, the relationships you are in, are all completely in His control. Perhaps if you could see that, you begin to live life a little differently.
Joel Brooks:Alright. So the Syrian army here, they charge down against Elisha. And right after praying that his servant receives sight, he now prays that they would become blind. And I don't think this is really a physical blindness here because Elisha is then going to lead them on a 12 mile march, all the way into Samaria, and you can't do that if you're physically blind. I think once again, this blindness is an inability
Jeffrey Heine:for them to perceive what is
Joel Brooks:really going on. I mean they, perceive what is really going on. I mean, they already, they were blind because we could see they weren't being very rational, but but now they've lost all sense of perceiving reality. They don't have any idea where Elisha is leading them. They don't even know who Elisha is.
Joel Brooks:And what they're doing is just putting one foot in front of another, in front of another. No idea where they are going or why. And here we get such a vivid picture of what life without Christ looks like. It's a life without vision. It's a life where you don't ask where you are going.
Joel Brooks:You don't ask why you're doing the things you're doing, you're you're just blindly putting one foot in front of another. You know, you need to you need to go to school, you need to get good grades so you could get a good job, so you could buy a bunch of things, so you could just follow along with whatever the person in front of you is doing. You could believe whatever your culture is telling you to believe, and you just blindly go along with these things, never stopping to ask, Where am I going? Why am I doing this? You're blind.
Joel Brooks:That's what life without Christ looks like. Elisha here, he he leads these people all the way to Samaria. Once again, it's 12 miles away. The king of Samaria cannot believe his luck. I mean in verse 21, he says can I strike them down?
Joel Brooks:Can I strike them down? I mean he's like he's giddy like a like a little child, and he's, like, repeatedly asking his dad for something. Can I can I have this? Can I have this? Can I do this?
Joel Brooks:Can I do this? He wants nothing more than to kill all these people. And Elisha says, you will do no such thing. They're not gonna kill their enemies. They're going to feed them.
Joel Brooks:And here we see that although all along, these Syrians, they thought Elisha was the enemy, in truth, they had been blinded to the fact that he was their advocate. He was their mediator. He was the only one standing in between impending judgment and them. They've been blinded to grace. They came for a fight, and Elisha is preparing them a feast.
Joel Brooks:What a picture of grace we get here. It's it's this beautiful picture of salvation. I mean, when these Syrians' eyes were opened, all they could see was God's impending judgment upon them. No way out. They had sinned.
Joel Brooks:They knew it. They were getting what they deserved. But instead of judgment, God lavishes grace upon them. And then we see how this grace transforms them. They go back home different men.
Joel Brooks:It said that they never raided Israel again. I've actually been really convicted by Elisha's response here, because honestly, I think I'm more like the king of Israel. I mean, I don't know about you, but I I come ready for a fight way too often. And I think we're in a culture that encourages this. Honestly, I think we're in a culture that gets giddy at the thought of destroying your enemies.
Joel Brooks:When was the last time, and you don't have to think hard about this, last time you've ever read a headline that said so and so disagrees with so and so. You don't ever read that. It's so and so bashes so and so. So and so burns so and so. So and so is something phobic because they disagree with someone.
Joel Brooks:It's like everybody just wants to heighten the language. Everybody comes ready for a fight. Everybody comes loaded for bear. I mean, they really are. Ready to take on, not just enemies, but anyone who disagrees with you.
Joel Brooks:But church, we have a call to love our enemies, to bless those who persecute us. When people come ready to fight, we prepare them a feast. We lavish grace upon them. Or have we forgotten, church, that we once were enemies of God, and he lavished his grace upon us through Jesus Christ, his Son. And that's really to whom this story points.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is the greater Elisha. He's the greater advocate, the greater mediator. Jesus is the one who stands in between us and eternal judgment. Remember when Jesus was surrounded by soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26? Remember?
Joel Brooks:Judas had just betrayed Jesus. The ambush had now been set. The soldiers, they were all surrounding coming to grab Jesus. Peter pulls out his sword. He he strikes someone, cuts off their ear.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus immediately rebukes Peter, and he says, Peter, put away your sword. Have you learned nothing? Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels. You see Peter just saw soldiers, but Jesus saw the heavenly realities and that he had all the army of God at his disposal. As a matter of fact, Jesus is the lord of host, meaning he is the commander of these armies.
Joel Brooks:But Jesus does not call the armies down for his protection. Instead, in that moment, he allowed himself to be arrested. He allowed himself to be crucified. And his body became bread given to his enemies. Jesus did all of this in order to pay our debt of sin.
Joel Brooks:Do you see that? That we stand condemned, but he mediated on our behalf. He lavished grace. He took the punishment we deserve. Do you see that?
Joel Brooks:Have your eyes been opened? If your eyes are open, you will see that is so beautiful and it will forever change you. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we ask that through your Spirit, you would open up our eyes. For those in this room who are blind, give them spiritual sight.
Joel Brooks:And, Lord, give us a supernatural love for our enemies. Just as you loved us, may we love them. Instead of fighting, may we give them some grace to feast upon. Thank you, Jesus. We love you, and we pray this in your name.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
