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Article Archive |
2007
The One Who Can Save Us
by Jim Morris
“Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the King of Israel?” the enraged Ben-Hadad II, King of Aram, demanded from his officers (2 Kings 6:11). Each of his attempts to harm the King of Israel met with failure. How could Ben-Hadad expect to win a war if his every move was known by his foe?
“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet of Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom” (6:12).
Imagine what Ben-Hadad may have thought. “So that is it! Israel has a spy. Elisha is somehow gathering information to thwart my most secret plans. He must be stopped.”
“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.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city” (6:13-14).
“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” (6:15).
Most of us would be a little anxious at this point, too. It often seems that those who wish to harm us have all of the advantages. We may find ourselves out numbered, out gunned, and out smarted. We are surrounded by the enemy! Our human senses tell us that we are doomed. Yet, as Christians we “walk by faith, and not by sight.” There is more than meets the eye–there is God!
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 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” (6:16-17).
The best way to shore up our own life is to trust and obey God. Which enemy is capable of overwhelming us today? Poverty? Disease? War? If only we could see the world as God sees it. If only we could truly believe that, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Abraham Lincoln, in part of his “Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863,” said to our nation:
“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
“Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” Let us return to the One who can save us. . .
10-03-07
# 40
