Getting Rid of Enemies

Psalm 23
2 Kings 6

Sermon for North Hill Adventist Church, May 1, 2010.

Aram was making war on Israel. It was a low-grade, on-going conflict. Skirmishes across the border. Raids against small towns.

The king of Aram hoped to find some way to make a decisive strike against the Israeli army that would change the balance of power. He began setting ambushes that he hoped would take out a major portion of the Israeli army. But it never worked. Aram’s spies would work out the patterns of Israeli troop movements or they would get inside information about some specific plan of the Israeli army. Based on this information, the king of Aram would set up an ambush. And wait. And wait. And nothing. The Israeli army never walked into one of his ambushes.

After months of this, the king of Aram began to suspect the Israelis had planted a spy in his own inner circle. The constant failure of every single plan could not be mere coincidence. Something fishy was going on. The king summoned all his officers.

When they were all gathered, the king had them stand in a large semicircle. At first, he said nothing. He just stared. Slowly looking around the group, staring each man in the eye. Tension in the room rose. Something big was up. The king was mad. Somebody’s head was going to roll. Finally, the king spoke. “Who is the traitor? Someone in this circle is passing secrets to the Israelis. Who?” Again, he stared around the circle. Drilling holes with his eyes in the face of each of his lieutenants.

The silence was terrifying.

Finally one of the officers spoke up. “Sir, the traitor is not in this circle. None of us is on Israel’s side. It’s the prophet Elisha. He tells the king of Israel the words you say in your bedroom.”

The officer’s claim was not far fetched. The king knew the story of Naaman–the Aramean general who had been cured of leprosy by the prophet. The king had probably heard other stories that circulated in the bazaars of Damascus. Elisha had caused an iron ax head to float up from the bottom of the Jordan river. He resurrected a boy who died of sun stroke. Elisha multiplied a handful of food to provide a meal for a hundred men. He had engineered the destruction of an entire Moabite army. No priest or magician in ancient time had demonstrated more power than Elisha. So yes, it was believable the prophet might be able to supernaturally listen in on the king’s war planning councils.

The king had only one option: He had to get Elisha.

His spies had a new mission. Forget the Israeli army. Find Elisha. It wasn’t hard to do. Elisha did not hide. He was not an Osama bin Laden hiding in a cave. He was not even a president Ahmedinajab, carefully shielded from the public by security forces. He moved around the country doing God’s work. Touching people.

The spies reported back to the king: Elisha is in the village of Dothan.

The king immediately dispatched a strong force of horsemen and chariots to capture the prophet and bring him back to Damascus.

(This part of the story is curious to me. If the king really believed that Elisha could listen in on his bedroom conversations, how could he imagine that he would be able to capture Elisha? The king was obviously determined. He was going to leave no strategy untried. He wanted money. Subjugating Israel and making them pay taxes was the most obvious short cut to wealth. Sometimes the lure of money leads us to make some rather foolish moves.)


So the Aramean special forces arrived outside Dothan late in the night and surrounded the city.

The next morning early Elisha’s servant went up on the roof. From there he immediately saw the village was surrounded. He raced back down to tell Elisha. The prophet and servant went back up to the roof. Sure enough. The city was surrounded.

The servant is desperate with fear. “Master, what are we going to do?”

Elisha just laughs. “Calm down. Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

The servant doesn’t get it. Dothan is not a city. It is not a royal garrison. There are only a few men in town. There are no military units stationed in the city. Who is Elisha thinking of when he says, “We have more on our side than they have on their side.”?

The servant must have expressed his doubt because the Elisha asks God to let his servant in on the secret. “O Lord,” Elisha prays, “open his eyes so he can see.”

God did as Elisha asked and opened the servant’s eyes. Suddenly he saw a vast army of horses and flaming chariots riding in the sky above the hills surrounding Dothan. Compared to these chariots in the sky the Aramean force did, indeed, look rather puny.

As the prophet and the servant watched, the Arameans began advancing on the village.

Elisha left his roof and walked to the gate of the village. There he prayed again. “Lord, strike these men with blindness.”

Again, God did as Elisha asked. The entire unit went blind. Instantly!

Elisha walked out to their commander and offered his help. “You’re on the wrong road.” he told them. “This is the wrong city. Follow me and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.”

What could they do? They were blind. They were in enemy territory. So they followed this helpful stranger. The entire force riding blindly behind their leader, whose horse was being led by an old man.

Elisha led them into the city of Samaria, the capital of Israel. It was a strongly fortified city, with a resident force of soldiers. Elisha and his entourage passed through the gates and kept going until they were in the heart of the city. Perhaps on a parade ground or square. Then, once the Israeli army had its archers and other soldiers in place around the Arameans, and the king of Israel was standing beside the prophet, Elisha prayed again.

“Lord, open their eyes.”

Again God did as Elisha asked and restored sight to the blind soldiers.

I would really like to see this in a movie. Can you imagine the look on the faces? The Arameans know they are toast. They’re dead. They’re looking right at the points of arrows that are aimed straight at them. The Israeli soldiers are dreaming of revenge. It’s finally their time to get even. They can hardly wait for the command to slaughter the Arameans. They’re staring down the shaft of their arrows right in the faces of their enemies.

The king of Israel is no different from his men. “Shall I slay them, my father?” he says to Elisha. “Shall I slay them?”

“No!” Elisha snaps. “Would you kill soldiers you captured with your own sword or bow?” If it would be wrong to slaughter prisoners you captured in a hard fought battle, how much more immoral would it be to slaughter soldiers who were handed over to you by God? Then Elisha gave him instructions for destroying the Aramean enemies.

“Set food and water before them. Then send them home to their master.”

One way to destroy and enemy is to make him a friend. It worked on this occasion.

Elisha was no shrinking violet. Several chapters earlier there is an account of a war between Israel and Moab. Israel got into a terrible predicament and in desperation the king sought Elisha’s counsel. Elisha rescued him from his predicament and gave directions for a strategy that resulted in the complete virtual annihilation of the Moabite army.

Near the beginning of his ministry when a group of young thugs was mocking him as God’s representative, Elisha cursed them. Immediately two mother bears came out of the woods and mauled forty two of the trouble makers.

When his servant Gehazi used his position as Elisha’s assistant to fraudulently enrich himself, Elisha cursed him with leprosy.

Elisha was not a softy. He was not blind to human evil. He was not unwilling to take stern action when necessary. So his counsel in this case is even more attention grabbing.

“Do not harm these soldiers God has given into your hand. Feed them and send them home.”

The king of Israel did as Elisha said. He prepared a great feast for the Aramean special forces. Then sent them home.

The story ends with these words, “So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.”

How do you get rid of enemies? One way, a very common human approach, is to annihilate them. God’s way, at least his preferred way, is to turn them into friends.


John 3:17 says, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And it is important to understand that John always uses “the world” to describe humanity in its rebellious, lost state. God did not send Jesus to condemn sinners and gossips and wife-beaters and tax cheats and greedy bankers and lazy drug addicts. God sent his son to save sinners. To save people like you and me.

That was Jesus mission. That was God’s mission in the Old Testament.

The most famous Philistine in the Bible is Goliath. How does his story end? David takes him down and chops off his head.

There is another Philistine, King Abimelech. When Isaac faced starvation because of a famine, King Abimelech gave him sanctuary. Later Abimelech entered into a treaty with Isaac, because, Abimeleh said, “We see clearly the Lord is with you . . . and you are blessed by the Lord.” (Genesis 26)

So are Philistines the bad guys or the good guys?

What about the Canaanites?

Rahab was a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho. The people of Jericho were so wicked God decreed the annihilation of the entire population. To emphasize: Rahab was a prostitute in a city that was so evil it was consigned to destruction. If you were looking for an example of someone who was beyond hope and help morally speaking, Rahab would be exhibit A. Except she wasn’t beyond hope and help. She was already a closet believer even while running her business in Jericho. Because of her hidden faith, she hid two Jewish spies who came into the city. As a reward, she was saved. And her entire clan. And all her friends. Anyone who was in her house during the invasion was saved.

Before the battle for Jericho began Joshua, the Jewish general, gave the two spies the specific assignment to make sure Rahab and all the people in her house were protected. Rahab and company joined the Jewish people. Rahab herself was honored by God as one of the ancestors of Jesus.

So are Canaanites the bad guys or good guys?

To bring the story bad to Israel and Aram in the days of Elisha:

Naaman was the commander of the Aramean army. He also had leprosy. Through an amazing run of events he met the prophet Elisha and was cured. And was converted. He returned to Damascus a worshiper of the God of Israel.

Elisha understood that the greatest triumph in the war with the forces of evil was not the destruction of people but their salvation.

That is still true today.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they will be called the children of God.” Our membership in God’s family is most evident when we are busy making peace.

Elisha was the most powerful miracle worker in all of Bible history other than Jesus himself. His most dramatic miracles led to the conversion of Israel’s enemies.

What are you doing about your enemies? How much energy are you putting into praying for their conversion? What have you done to reach out to win their heart? What plans have you made to seek their well-being?

Some people, I presume Christians, have launched a Facebook page praying for President Obama’s death.

Those who are involved in this project risk hearing the words of Jesus: “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”

I read an article this week about someone who was tired of the negativity of the Tea Party movement. She wished she could somehow create something new where people would not define themselves by what they were against. She hoped to gather people together to talk about policy instead of simply thinking the problem was “those people.”

So she organized a gathering and called it “The Coffee Party.” When she opened the floor for discussion, she was dismayed to discover that the people at her gathering were just as negative as the people who went to Tea Parties. They were just negative in a different direction. The people at her party talked as though the answer to all their problems was to get rid of the Tea Party people.

Whether our fundamental political stance tends to be “right” or “left,” we depart from Christian principles when we allow ourselves to imagine the answer to the problems in our nation could be found in “getting rid of those people.” Getting rid of people is not God’s preferred solution to problems. When we understand our goal as winning hearts, it will change our rhetoric. It may even change our own hearts.

The story of Elisha and the Arameans reminds us that getting rid of people is not God’s preferred way of making the world a better place. God’s goal is winning hearts. Even the hearts of Philistines, Canaanites and Arameans. Even the hearts of the avowed enemies of his people.

There is another vital lesson in the story of Elisha and the Aramean special forces. When the servant looked out from the roof on that morning he was filled with terror. And because he was filled with terror, he naturally was consumed with concern for his own well being. What is going to happen to us? What is going to happen to me?

These would have been the only relevant questions if the situation was truly what it looked like as he was standing there on the roof. He and Elisha were on their own. They were in a small village with no army, utterly at the (non-existent) mercy of overwhelming, hostile forces. That’s what it looked like.

Sometimes this is the way our situation appears. Bills are piling up and there are no job ofers coming in. The diagnosis is incurable cancer. We’ve been served unjust divorce papers and we have no resources to fight back. The national debt keeps mushrooming and we have no way to slow it down. Congress keeps voting for things we oppose. The country is headed in directions we think are fatal to our well-being and we are helpless to reverse it.

Hopeless.

Is that the way it appears to you?

May I say this gently and with respect? If the situation appears hopeless to you, it is because you are partially blind. You are like the servant on Elisha’s roof. The troubles you see are probably real enough. However, they are not the entire story. Above the evident reality is a larger, harder, tougher, sturdier reality.

God reigns.

Don’t give up. Do not despair. Do not fear. Even in this life God is active and creates sweet futures we cannot see. More importantly, we believe our lives are headed beyond this world. In that future world even the genuinely tragic and evil events of this world will be somehow reworked into elements of a grand, magnificent story. I don’t pretend to know how this is so. I just stand with the church in declaring it is so.

When it comes to evildoers, there are really only two potential futures for them. Either they will allow Elisha to lead them into the city of God where they will be turned into friends of God. Or they will be destroyed. God prefers the first. He likes making friends.

So at least for this morning, relax. Celebrate the truth that evil is temporary. God and his friends are forever. Your enemies are targets of God’s scheming to win their hearts. And so are you.