“Oh Lord, open his eyes and let him see.”
(II Kings 6:17)
Have you ever had someone say to you, “Did you see that?” to which you might have responded, “See what? I didn’t see anything.” About that time the other person might say something like, “How could you miss that?” What makes the difference between the things we see and the things we miss? Why do some things grab our attention, while we are oblivious to others?
There is a great story in the Old Testament book of II Kings chapter 6 that helps us with our vision problem. It relates an amazing event that took place when the king of Aram was at war with Israel. The king of Aram was very frustrated in his endeavor to conquer Israel. He would set up camp in a place he thought was secret, and there he would prepare his attack on Israel. However, his strategy never worked because the prophet Elisha would know where the king of Aram was and warn the king of Israel. Obviously, this frustrated the king of Aram very much, so when he learned that Elisha was in Dothan, he sent an army with horses and chariots to surround the city at night and ultimately kill Elisha. The next morning, Elisha’s servant looked out the window when he went into the kitchen to put the Keurig on, and became panicked at the sight of the great Aramean army. “Oh no, what should we do!” he exclaimed to Elisha. To which Elisha simply replied, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” At this point, all the servant could see was the Aramean army. That was when Elisha prayed, “Lord open his eyes so that he can see.” Now the servant was probably thinking, “Open my eyes! They are opened, and I see a vast army that’s about to come pouncing upon us.” However, just then something amazing happened. The Lord opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, and looking up into the hills he saw a vast army of horses and chariots of fire surrounding them. God had sent his own army. Wow! Talk about having your eyes opened to what is really going on around you!
So why did Elijah’s servant not see the huge blazing army God had sent to protect them? Obviously, Elijah had seen them. It’s a simple answer – the servant was looking at the wrong army.
Every day of our lives, we find ourselves surrounded by situations, events, and people that perplex us, making us feel vulnerable and fearful. Listen to two verses from the book of Psalms. Psalm 34:7 – “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.” Psalm 125:2 – “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people.”
We don’t become fearful because we’re surrounded by a worldly army of things that want
to harm us; we become fearful because we’re looking at the wrong army!
Darlene