2 KINGS 6 (PART 2)
Read 2 Kings 6:8-23
We now move away from Elisha’s dealings with the low-key mundane things of everyday life to the bigger stage. Israel was at war with neighbouring Aram. And the king of Aram was getting frustrated. Wherever he sent his troops they never managed find the enemy Israelite troops. He got to the point that he was convinced that there was a traitor in a senior position in the army who was passing information to the Israelites (v11). But that was not the case. What was happening was that the prophet Elisha was telling the king of Israel where the Aramean troops were so the he could avoid them. How did Elisha know the detailed movements of the enemy? The Bible does not tell us in so many words, but we have seen that Elisha had a close relationship with God and it seems that God worked through his prophet to keep his people safe.
Of course, the king of Aram wanted rid of Elisha and sent troops to capture him (v14). Elisha’s servant saw the enemy troops and was distraught; ‘what shall we do?’ he asked. But Elisha was confident that the Lord would protect them, and he did. The enemy troops were captured without bloodshed thanks to the Lord’s intervention.
What happened next went against all the expectations of ancient warfare. The king of Israel, rather than killing all these enemy troops that he had in captivity, listened to the counsel of Elisha, and gave them food and drink. Then he sent them back to the king of Aram. And the king of Aram stopped the war with Israel, at least for the time being (v23).
Here, in the Old Testament, we see a wonderful example of the grace and mercy that we normally associate with the New Testament. The Arameans had fallen into the hands of the Israelites, God’s people, and the Israelites had spared them. This was not the usual way in which warfare was conducted in the ancient Middle East. But we know that the ways of God are not the ways of this world in which we live. God so often turns human values on their head and he tells his followers that we, too, should live by his standards not those of the world.
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘You have heard it said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy”, but I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’. (Matthew 5:43-44). And here, many, many years before Jesus said that, we see God’s people doing exactly that, loving and praying for their enemies.
What an opportunity that was for the Arameans to come to know the love and grace of God. If we, too, can show the same grace that Elisha showed to the enemies of God’s people in his day, then we could win over some of the enemies of God in our day.