2 Kings 6:8-23 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.… I. GOD IS THE PROTECTOR OF HIS PEOPLE. Was Elisha so much dearer to God's heart than His other children that for him alone the forces of heaven came down to earth? Cannot all God's people say, "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge"? II. THE REALITY AND NEARNESS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD. The unseen is not the unreal. It needed just the opening of the eyes, and nothing more, to reveal to this young man agencies unseen and unsuspected before. We are citizens of two worlds — one material, the other spiritual. We cannot too frequently remind ourselves of this fact: that the world we see is not the only one in which we live. All about us is another, vast and mighty, although invisible and silent. When Dr. Judson was at Rangoon for the last time, endeavouring to gain a footing for the Gospel, he heard one day that the savage Burman magistrate had stationed guards with orders to seize every native seen coming out of the house of the teacher. Mrs. Judson writes: "I shall never forget the expression of my husband's face, as though really piercing to the invisible, when he exclaimed. 'I tell you, if we had but the power to see them, the air about us is thick with contending spirits, the good and the bad, striving for mastery.' However many and strong our foes, our friendly helpers are yet more numerous and powerful. Elisha's bodyguard was more than a match for the Syrian host. Rank upon rank they stood about him, countless as sunbeams; chariots that were billows of fire, and horses that were clouds of flame. So God's defending hosts surround His people, invisible, innumerable, invincible. III. THE MINISTRY OF THE ANGELS. As sons of God by creation, we of the human race do not stand alone. There is another race of intelligent beings, to whom, by the fact of a common fatherhood, we are nearly related. They are our brethren in the household of the divine offspring. They are the elder, we the younger, born. With them there is neither childhood nor age, for they came into being, not by successive generations, but swept forth in all their glittering hosts, full-statured, at a single fiat of creative will. They are no flock of idle dreamers, sauntering along streets of gold, lying on fleecy clouds, listening to the music of fountains, their gravest task to practise psalmody and carry their part in some grand chorus. The word assures us that they are employed, every one, in rendering service in this earthly life to them who are heirs of salvation. There is something impressive and stimulating in the thought that we are constantly surrounded by these unseen helpers. No power of evil can avoid their scrutiny. Wherever a foe lurks an angel watches. They attend us in our solitudes, walk by our side in danger, and mingle with us in our solemn assemblies. Over the sorrowing, the tempted, the toiling, the dying they bend in true and tender sympathy. (George W. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. |
    |