Class Notes, 2 Kings 6:1-8:29

2 Kings 6:1-7 (NIV) The company of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live."
And he said, "Go."
3 Then one of them said, "Won't you please come with your servants?"
"I will," Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them.
They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Oh, my lord," he cried out, "it was borrowed!"
6 The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?" When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 "Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
1. This is one of those stories that can make you wonder why it is in there.  It doesn't seem very significant.  In my limited opinion, there are at least four possibilities for its conclusion
1. It is there for completeness.  The problem is that so much of the OT stories are left out that it would seem unusual for God to include complete details of Elisha
2. It demonstrates Elisha's ability to perform miracles from God.  The problem is that his other miracles have already demonstrated that in much greater degree
3. It teaches the importance of taking care of borrowed items, which is a moral quality.  The problem is that this goes without saying
4. It is symbolic of something far more important.  This means that the miracle actually happened (i.e., scripture is literal), and that there was an explanation later by Elisha (something we are not privy )
2. If it is symbolic, what do we see?
• A tool, which is useful and valuable.  Israel is valuable and could be useful to God
• The tool flies off the handle.  Israel goes off in its own direction -- not in the direction God wanted to use it
• The tool sinks to the bottom of the river making it lost and unrecoverable (sank too deep).  Israel is lost and has sank too deep spiritually to be useful
• Elisha miraculously causes it to float.  God can miraculously restore Israel to spiritual usefulness again
• APPLICATION:  God wants to use us in his ministry to reach our world.  We are never so useless that we can't be restored.  But we do have to choose, God does not force our participation.  Rather it is an honor to be used by God
2 Kings 6:8-23 (NIV) Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, "I will set up my camp in such and such a place."
9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there." 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, "Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?"
12 "None of us, my lord the king," said one of his officers, "but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom."
13 "Go, find out where he is," the king ordered, "so I can send men and capture him." The report came back: "He is in Dothan." 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
16 "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
17 And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, "Strike these people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19 Elisha told them, "This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for." And he led them to Samaria.
20 After they entered the city, Elisha said, "Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see." Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, "Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?"
22 "Do not kill them," he answered. "Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master." 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory.
3. It is an interesting story, God supernaturally provides intelligence to the King of Israel, frustrating the King of Aram.  He believed he had a spy on his staff.  More likely the officers had spies in Israel, because they knew what was happening.  Anyway, the king of Aram (possibly Ben-Hadad II), decides to eliminate Elisha
4. What also makes the story interesting is the contrast between the seen and unseen
• Elisha cannot see what is said (only God is omnipresent), so God must be providing the information to him
• The king of Aram attacks the physical person of Elisha with a physical army
• Elisha's servant is worried.  Worry often occurs when we only consider the seen (problems, circumstances, etc) and ignore the unseen (God)
• Elisha opens his servants eyes to see God's army (which was quite large)
• Elisha blinds the eyes of the enemies of God so that they cannot see the "seen"
• Elisha guides the blind to a new location, Samaria, so that they can see
• Joram recognizes the miracle, indicative of him humbling himself by calling Elisha, "Father"
• Consequently, Joram treats them most kindly, resulting in a number of years of peace
5. APPLICATION: God has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see.  Believers on the other hands have their eyes opened to understand spiritual truth.  But believers can also so focus on the seen that they miss out on the unseen.  The unseen is seen with eyes of faith.  Which is why scripture tells us to walk by faith and not by sight
2 Kings 6:24-25 (NIV) Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey's head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
6. This would be Ben-Hadad II
7. The siege is very long as evidenced by the price of food
8. Seed ponds are probably better translated as Dove's dung
9. Two women will make a deal to eat their own babies, although one later reneges.  The issue causes Joram to be quite angry
• His response is to kill Elisha
• Probably because Elisha had foretold the event
• Joram wore sackcloth representing repentance, but won't don't really get any sense of repentance from the king
• Also, Joram shows impatience with the Lord.  Saul showed similar impatience with Samuel
• Nothing shows the real you, then hard times that never seem to end
2 Kings 6:32-7:2 (NIV) Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, "Don't you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master's footsteps behind him?"
33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. And [the king] said, "This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"
7 Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?"
"You will see it with your own eyes," answered Elisha, "but you will not eat any of it!"
10. Elisha does not see the king's messenger nor the king, but he knows they are coming
11. Additionally, Elijah tells everyone what they cannot see, and that is that the siege will end tomorrow
12. The result of this insight into the unseen is for the king's aid to express his unbelief
• We need to understand that this is not a "I can't believe it"
• It is a militant "You are crazy, and that will not happen"
• Lastly, it is in response to God's word from God's prophet
• APPLICATION: What is our response to things God tells us from his word?
2 Kings 7:3-9 (NIV) Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, 'We'll go into the city'-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die."
5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!" 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
9 Then they said to each other, "We're not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace."
13. Why does God use the lepers of the city to save the city?
• They are outcasts, not to be seen
• They are useless.  They can't do anything good because of their condition
• They are unclean and avoided on sight
14. They are also selfish.  They rummage through tents, hiding their booty, before finally deciding to tell others.  And then only because if others find out, they might lose their life
15. They were unworthy in every respect, unclean on the outside and self-centered on the inside.  They were Israel, but they were saved by God
2 Kings 7:10-12 (NIV) So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, "We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there — not a sound of anyone — only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were." 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.
12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, "I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, 'They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.'"
16. I can't fault the king completely for his response to the news.  Certainly, it could be a Trojan horse in reverse. But there is a theme running through this passage and it is represented in his response …
• The king viewed things from a human perspective and not a spiritual perspective
• He saw events different from their actuality
• He chose to forget God's word from Elisha
• So even though his salvation is before him, he refuses to believe it is there.  It is almost as if "it can't exist if I didn't work for it"
• He sees problems well, but he is blind to grace
2 Kings 7:17-20 (NIV) Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: "About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria."
19 The officer had said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" The man of God had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!" 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
17. God judges the king's aide, not for a careless remark but rather for a refusal to believe the truth.  Ultimately all mankind will be judged on the same basis.  A refusal to have faith in God nullifies a person's opportunity for salvation
• If we focus too much on the seen, we may miss out on the miracles before us
18. APPLICATION:
• 2 Cor 5:7 (NIV) We live by faith, not by sight.
• Heb 11:1-2 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
• Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
19. What is our response to the events of life?  Do we only see the seen, or do we look to God to see the unseen?