When you can’t see a way out
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ~ 2 Kings 6:16
Have you ever had one of those moments when the problem in front of you seemed so big that it completely blocked your view of anything else? You knew God was with you, you knew you’d seen Him work before, but right now, all you could see was the problem.
That’s exactly where we find Elisha’s servant in today’s scripture reading. The king of Syria had sent an entire army to surround the city where Elisha and his servant were staying. When the servant got up early and saw horses, chariots, and soldiers surrounding them, he panicked. Honestly, who could blame him? It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you want to see before your morning coffee.
His response was, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” But Elisha wasn’t afraid. He knew something his servant couldn’t see yet. He knew that what was visible wasn’t the whole story. Elisha prayed, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then God opened the servant’s eyes, and suddenly he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. The army had been real, but so was God’s protection. The danger was real, but it wasn’t greater than the God who was with them.
We live in a world where there’s plenty to make us anxious. We can be surrounded by bad news, financial pressure, family concerns, difficult relationships, uncertainty about the future, or situations that seem completely out of our control. Sometimes what we see with our natural eyes can become so loud that we forget there’s a whole spiritual reality we can’t see.
Here are three truths we can take from this chapter to remind us that God doesn’t have to change everything around you before He can give you peace. Sometimes He changes what you can see.
1. Don’t let what you see tell you the whole story
The servant looked outside and saw an army. Elisha looked outside and knew God had an army too. The servant’s problem wasn’t that what he saw was untrue. There really were soldiers surrounding the city. His problem was that he could only see part of the picture.
That can happen to us, too. You might look at your bank account and see a shortage. You might look at your family and see a difficult situation. You might look at your calendar and see more responsibilities than you have energy for. You might look at your future and have no idea how everything is going to work out. What you see may be real, but it isn’t necessarily the whole story.
Faith doesn’t mean pretending problems don’t exist. It means remembering that your problems aren’t the only things that exist. When you’re facing something difficult, practice bringing your attention back to what you know about God. He’s faithful. He’s present. He’s your provider. He gives wisdom. He gives strength. He can make a way where you don’t see one. The next time your thoughts start racing through every possible disaster, stop and ask, “God, what am I not seeing?” You may not immediately see a solution, but you can choose to trust the One who already sees the beginning, the middle, and the end.
2. God can give you a different perspective without changing your circumstances
Notice something important about this story. When Elisha prayed for his servant’s eyes to be opened, God didn’t immediately remove the Syrian army. The army was still there. The circumstances hadn’t changed yet, but the servant’s perspective changed.
Sometimes we pray, “God, get me out of this,” and God’s answer begins with, “Let Me show you how I’m with you in this.” That doesn’t mean God won’t change the situation. He absolutely can. But sometimes the first miracle is that God gives you peace before He gives you the answer.
Maybe you’re waiting for a door to open. Maybe you’re dealing with a situation you can’t control. Maybe you’ve been praying for someone you love and you haven’t seen the change you hoped for yet.
Instead of only praying, “God, change this,” begin praying, “God, open my eyes to see You in the middle of this.” Look for His wisdom. Look for His provision. Look for the people He’s placed around you. Look for the strength He’s giving you for today. Look for the little reminders that you’re not walking through this alone. Sometimes we’re so focused on the mountain that we miss the fact that God is standing on it with us.
3. You don’t have to be afraid when God is with you
Elisha told his servant, “Do not fear.” That’s a powerful statement considering what was happening around them. Elisha didn’t say, “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He said, “There’s more with us than there is against us.” That’s an important difference.
Being God’s people doesn’t mean we’ll never face intimidating circumstances. It means we don’t have to face them alone. There will be moments when you receive a phone call you didn’t expect. There will be moments when the numbers don’t make sense, the relationship is complicated, the diagnosis is concerning, the opportunity feels bigger than you, or the next step seems unclear. Fear may knock on your door, but you don’t have to invite it in for dinner. You can acknowledge what’s happening without allowing fear to become the voice making your decisions.
When you feel overwhelmed, remind yourself of who God is. Pray before you panic. Worship before you worry. Open Scripture before you start searching the internet for seventeen possible worst-case scenarios. When you don’t know what to do, remember that you don’t have to know everything to take the next step God has given you.
Elisha didn’t need his servant to understand everything. He needed him to trust the God who could see what he couldn’t. This chapter reminds us that heaven isn’t nervous about what’s happening on earth. The enemy had surrounded the city, but God had already surrounded His people.
Today I want to encourage you not to allow what you see to become greater than what you know about God. There may be circumstances surrounding you right now that feel intimidating, but God hasn’t left you in the middle of them. You may not see the answer yet, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t working. You may not know what tomorrow holds, but you know the One who holds tomorrow.
When fear says, “Look at the problem,” faith says, “Look at your God.” When your circumstances say, “There’s no way,” remember that God doesn’t need a way to already exist. He can make one. Ask God to open your eyes today. Open your eyes to His presence. Open your eyes to His provision. Open your eyes to His protection. Open your eyes to the people He’s placed around you. Most of all, open your eyes to see that you’re not facing your circumstances by yourself. The army may be surrounding you, but God is surrounding you too.
Today’s scripture reading: 2 Kings 6
1 And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.
2 Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.”
So he answered, “Go.”
3 Then one said, “Please consent to go with your servants.”
And he answered, “I will go.”
4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
5 But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.”
6 So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.
7 Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
8 Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel; and he consulted with his servants, saying, “My camp will be in such and such a place.”
9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.”
10 Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.
11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?”
12 And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.”
13 So he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.”
And it was told him, saying, “Surely he is in Dothan.”
14 Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19 Now Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” But he led them to Samaria.
20 So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and there they were, inside Samaria!
21 Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
22 But he answered, “You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.”
23 Then he prepared a great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.
Syria Besieges Samaria in Famine
24 And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria.
25 And there was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.
26 Then, as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!”
27 And he said, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or from the winepress?”
28 Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”
And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’
29 So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”
30 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body.
31 Then he said, “God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!”
32 But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And the king sent a man ahead of him, but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, “Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take away my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?”
33 And while he was still talking with them, there was the messenger, coming down to him; and then the king said, “Surely this calamity is from the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
Journal:
Write a personal declaration based on 2 Kings 6:16 beginning with, “I will not fear because…”
What situation in my life feels bigger than I can handle right now?
What am I seeing with my natural eyes that may be causing me to lose sight of what I know about God?
What would change in my attitude if I truly believed God was with me in this situation?
What do I need to ask God to help me see differently?
