Portraits of Prayer

When the Syrians approached him, Elisha raised one of his simplest but lethal prayer point in his usual pointed style:

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. (2 Kings 6:18).

It is interesting to note that Elisha really had several options in dealing with this foreign army. He could have called fire to consume all of them as Elijah did with the two bands of soldiers sent from the King of Israel (II Kings 1:9-15). He could have asked God‘s host of angels already present, to slaughter the Syrian army. He could also have asked the Lord to swallow this army alive as happened in the times of Moses. I have tried to imagine several times what could have been happening in Elisha’s mind as he looked at this mountain full of Syrians. With a God who is unlimited on his side, anything that Elisha asked for, God would do and God was already on the scene. This is such an exhilarating and nerve-racking situation to be in or to even witness unfolding. Elisha was in a place where God was already present, ready to answer his prayer.

Of all the options he had, Elisha decided to capture the Syrian army alive. He decided to blind them first so he engaged God who could supernaturally blind a legion of soldiers in a split second. And God blinded them. When God blinded the Syrians, Elisha addressed them proposing to lead them to the man they were seeking. Blinded, they were ready to get any help they could in foreign territory.

I have always wondered why the Syrians did not panic once their sight was taken away and why they did not start driving their horses furiously and chaotically to their death down the mountainside. Why were they calm when their eyes were blinded and they were in enemy territory? Why, after this miraculous happening, did they not realise or even suspect that this man redirecting them is the prophet they were sent to capture or kill? Was this calmness as a result of the chariot and horses of fire and their riders which through their divine power held them bound? We are not told why and how but the whole development had a significant supernatural dimension to it.

I believe the Syrians were also wondering - if this is not Elisha, what would they do when they met the true Elisha now that they have been blinded already? Why even continue on this suicidal mission anymore? They must have also wondered why they were mentally numb and ready to follow orders from this Israeli man. I believe that what we are seeing here is a man of God taking absolute authority over a whole army just by releasing an eight word prayer “Smite these people, I pray thee, with blindness”. Their blindness was more than physical. Their minds were numbed and their military skills and training dulled by the release of this short prayer.

Elisha loved drama and he led the entire foreign army into the main square in the city of Samaria. We are not told much but I can only muse and imagine what the Israelites thought when they saw the prophet leading a whole army of blind soldiers into the centre of their city. They saw Elisha, all by himself, leading a whole army of foreign soldiers into the middle of their city. It was a striking scene. A memorable and frightening feat. Melodramatic – conjuring both fear and excitement. Without arrow, without sword, Elisha brought the whole army into captivity by the power of God’s word. Seeing this feat done by Elisha, the King of Israel gathered together his army for an effortless bloodletting and slaughter of the Syrians. We are not told where Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, was when all this was happening. He was probably still recovering from the awesome sight of a mountainside full of horses and chariots of fire. Or he was right there with his master, witnessing the unimaginable unfolding before his very eyes. To think that after seeing all this, Gehazi would lose his position in Elisha’s ministry later when her lusted after Naaman’s money is disappointing. When the whole army was in confinement, Elisha prayed his short but precise second prayer.

“Lord, open their eyes” (2 Kings 6:20 -paraphrased)

This prayer is pregnant with faith. This prayer rests on the knowledge that if God can blind their eyes, he can open their eyes. Simple! There are certain powers of Satan which can cause harm but cannot reverse the harm they caused. But God can undo anything He or anyone else has done. What took more faith was for Elisha to believe that God will do what he, Elisha, a mere man said. What took faith was to know that since God was a Partner with Elisha in leading the children of Israel, God would respect and fulfil the word of the prophet. What took faith was to believe that God was still there in this drama that Elisha had created and He, God, was waiting for Elisha’s next prayer or instruction. Prophets like these open and close prayers. Elijah closed the heavens for three and half years and opened the heavens by his iconic prayer with an abundance of rain (I Kings 17:1; I Kings 18:44)

God opened the eyes of the Syrian soldiers and this vast army took in the detail of their utter predicament. They were surrounded by the Israeli army. They were under confinement in the centre of Samaria. They could not, by any stroke of luck or strength, fight their way out. This was it. This was their end – all of them. The King of Israel, seeing this feat of God asked the prophet –“shall I smite them?” In other words, the King was asking Elisha, “Have you delivered them into my hands”?