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Prophets and Kings
When the people of God are brought into strait places, and ap-
parently there is no escape for them, the Lord alone must be their
dependence.
As the company of Syrian soldiers boldly advanced, ignorant of
the unseen hosts of heaven, “Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said,
Smite this people, I pray Thee, with blindness. And He smote them
with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto
them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will
bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.
“And it came to pass, when they were come into 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, behold, they were in
the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when
he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And
he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those
whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set
bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to
their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when
they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their
[258]
master.” See
2 Kings 6
.
For a time after this, Israel was free from the attacks of the Syrians.
But later, under the energetic direction of a determined king, Hazael,
the Syrian hosts surrounded Samaria and besieged it. Never had Israel
been brought into so great a strait as during this siege. The sins of the
fathers were indeed being visited upon the children and the children’s
children. The horrors of prolonged famine were driving the king of
Israel to desperate measures, when Elisha predicted deliverance the
following day.
As the next morning was about to dawn, the Lord “made the host
of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even
the noise of a great host;” and they, seized with fear, “arose and fled
in the twilight,” leaving “their tents, and their horses, and their asses,
even the camp as it was,” with rich stores of food. They “fled for their
life,” not tarrying until after the Jordan had been crossed.
During the night of the flight, four leprous men at the gate of the
city, made desperate by hunger, had proposed to visit the Syrian camp
and throw themselves upon the mercy of the besiegers, hoping thereby
to arouse sympathy and obtain food. What was their astonishment