2 Kings 6:16-17 - Homiletics

The spirit-world, and the power to discern it.

The little episode of the alarm felt by Elisha's servant, and the manner in which Elisha removed it, teaches us principally three things.

I. THE REALITY , AND PERPETUAL PRESENCE , AROUND US AND ABOUT US , OF THE SPIRIT - WORLD . The existence of an order of spirits intermediate between God and man , who are closely connected with man , and play an important part in the Divine government of the world wherein we live, is an essential part of the scheme of things set before us in the Scriptures. "The doctrine of angels," as it has been called, is this: "That there lives in the presence of God a vast assembly, myriads upon myriads of spiritual beings ( Psalms 68:17 ; Daniel 7:10 ), higher than we, but infinitely removed from God, mighty in strength, doers of his word, who ceaselessly bless and praise God, wise also, to whom be gives charge to guard his own in all their ways, ascending and descending to and from heaven and earth ( Genesis 28:12 , Genesis 28:13 ; John 1:51 ), and who variously minister to men, most often invisibly. All these beings are interested in us and in our well-being. When our earth was created, ' all the sons of God burst forth into jubilee' ( Job 38:7 ) in prospect of our birth, who were to be their care here, their fellow-citizens hereafter in bliss. At the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, they were present in myriads. When God vouchsafed his presence on Mount Zion, and the holy place became a new Sinai, 'twice ten thousand angels, yea, thousands many times repeated' ( Psalms 68:17 )were there. They are present with God, witnessing the trials of our race ( Job 1:6 ; Job 2:1 ; 1 Kings 22:19 ). Their love for man is indicated by the charge given to them when they are set to destroy the guilty in Jerusalem, 'Let not your eye spare, neither have pity' ( Ezekiel 10:5 ), as though they would have pity, only that they must needs be of the same mind with God. There is a distinction, or gradation of ranks, among the members of the heavenly host—Cherubim, seraphim, archangels, principalities, powers". It is irrational to explain away as embellishment or poetic imagery a representation of the actual condition of things in God's universe, which is so frequent, so all-pervading, so harmonious, and, it may be added, so consistent with what we should have naturally expected apart from revelation.

II. THE PERPETUAL REALIZATION OF THIS PRESENCE BY THOSE POSSESSED OF FAITH . There is no reason to believe that Elisha saw the angels that compassed him round, with his bodily eyes. But he knew that they were there. He was sure that God would not desert him in his peril, and had such a confident faith in "the doctrine of angels," that it was as if he could see them. And so it was with David. "The angel of the Lord," he says, "encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" ( Psalms 34:7 ). So with Hezekiah, who, when Sennacherib invaded his land, "spake comfortably to the people, saying, Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him " ( 2 Chronicles 32:7 ). Judas Maccabaeus had probably the same faith when he uttered the words, "It is no hard matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few; and with the God of heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: for the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven " (1 Macc. 3:18, 19). St. Paul realized the continual angelic presence when he declared, "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men" ( 1 Corinthians 4:9 ). The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews realized it when he told the Jewish converts, Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels" ( Hebrews 12:22 ). St. John the divine realized it, when he gave the angels a large share in all the later judgments that should befall the earth, and made them dispensers of the blessings and of the wrath of God (Rev 7:1-20:3). If the doctrine has been at any time obscured, it has been when faith wavered, and there was a tendency to confine the supernatural within the narrowest possible limits. It was easy to suggest that the expression, "the angels of God," was a periphrasis for God himself, and that he had no need to act, and therefore probably did not act, by intermediaries. But the faith of the Church has always been different. The festival of St. Michael and All Angels has been generally celebrated

from a very ancient date; and the Collect for that festival has borne witness to the perpetual ministration of angels, not only in heaven, but also upon earth, and to the part borne by them in the succor and defense of God's people.

III. THE POSSIBILITY OF A MANIFESTATION OF THE PRESENCE IN QUESTION TO THE BODILY SENSES OF THOSE WHOSE FAITH IS TOO WEAK TO APPREHEND IT . Elisha's servant did not see a vision. It was not his mind only that was impressed. His bodily eyes beheld an appearance as of chariots and horses of fire (verse 17), which was based on the objective reality of the actual presence of an angelic host upon the hill whereon Dothan was situated. The prophet prayed that his eyes should be opened, and his, prayer was granted. "The Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. Physicists are probably right in saying that what is absolutely immaterial cannot be seen by the optic nerve. But we are nowhere told that angels are absolutely immaterial. It is the belief of many philosophers that all finite spirits are attached to bodies of some kind or other—bodies more or less volatile and ethereal. We can readily conceive that the optic nerve may, by an increase of its sensitiveness, be made to see these; and in this way we may account, not only for the wonderful sight beheld on this occasion by Elisha's servant, but for the many other appearances of angels to men and women recorded in Scripture ( Genesis 3:1 ; Genesis 19:1-15 ; Genesis 32:24-30 ; 6:11-22 ; 2 Samuel 24:16 , 2 Samuel 24:17 ; 1 Kings 19:5-7 ; Isaiah 6:6 ; Daniel 6:22 ; Daniel 9:21 ; Daniel 10:16-21 ; Zechariah 1:11-19 ; Zechariah 4:1 , etc.; Luke 1:11-19 , Luke 1:26-38 ; Luke 2:9-13 ; John 20:12 ; Acts 5:19 ; Acts 8:26 ; Acts 12:7-10 ; Revelation, passim ). Miraculously, power is given to the optic nerve, which it does not ordinarily possess, and it is enabled to see beings actually present, who under ordinary circumstances are invisible to it.